Breweries beg MPs to maintain booze in Parliament regardless of ‘poisonous’ consuming claims
Southwark Brewing Company said being on tap in parliamentary bars can help give ‘exposure’ to firms, while Westminster pubs are also kept in business by MPs
Parliament’s drinking culture has been criticised(Image: Getty Images)
Brewery bosses are begging MPs to keep booze in Parliament – as it’s keeping them afloat. They claim it helps get local firms on the map while nearby pubs also “benefit” from parliamentarians and their staff drinking there.
It comes after the Green Party blasted the “toxic” drinking culture in Westminster which sees MPs go for a bevvy then “make decisions” on millions of people’s lives.
Peter Jackson, founder of Southwark Brewing Company which was the guest beer in the Commons’ Strangers bar, said: “There are plenty of pubs in Westminster that benefit from people drinking there, not just MPs, but their staff and the civil servants as well. That’s where they get their business from.”
He told Southwark News: “It’s an opportunity to get some exposure and that’s what you always struggle to do in the early days when you haven’t got the power of some of the big boys, mainly international brewers these days. It’s more publicity than anything. We were a new brewery, so we managed to get our name out there and became more widely known.”
Green MP Hannah Spencer and the party’s leader Zack Polanski recently slammed politicians for getting sozzled in boozers near Parliament. Mr Polanski raged: “We have this toxic drinking culture in Westminster where people can go for a drink and then make decisions on 69 million people’s lives.”
Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, hit back saying a booze ban in Parliament is needless and Southwark Brewing “loved” being the guest beer.
Meanwhile Spencer, who won the Gorton and Denton byelection in Greater Manchester in February, recently claimed in Westminster “you can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes”.
She added she was “really uneasy” about the drinking culture in parliament. In 2023, a report by Parliament’s watchdog found drinking in the Commons’ many bars often led to “intimidating behaviour”.
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