Should MPs be banned from drinking alcohol before House of Commons votes?

Read time: 2 mins

In brief…

• Newly elected MP Hannah Spencer, of Denton and Gorton, has spoken of her surprise at smelling alcohol on MPs between votes in the House of Commons.
• Emily Maitlis asks if there should be a law for “drunk voting’, as there is for drunk driving’.
• Jon Sopel says a pint or glass of wine wouldn’t change an MPs decision, when almost all will be instructed by a party whip which way to vote.

What’s the story?

Green MP Hannah Spencer has only been in the House of Commons since February, but she's made sizable waves since coming to the attention of the British public.

First, winning Gorton & Denton ahead of highly-publicised Reform rival Matt Goodwin. Now, for suggesting MPs are drinking alcohol in the Commons before casting votes which could affect the lives of millions in the UK.

"You can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes," she said in an interview with Politics Joe.

Nigel Farage has claimed the Green Party believes "an afternoon pint is a step too far", and Labour MP Luke Charters has described Spencer's claims as "classic clickbait farming", and said MPs work "long days for constituents".

Northern Ireland Alliance Party MP Sorcha Eastwood said Spencer's comments highlighted a "completely out of touch attitude", and that it "sums up perfectly why this entitled governmentt is so unpopular", and said it is unacceptable for people working long hours in other jobs to drink alcohol while working.

Bars inside the House of Commons sell subsidised alcohol to MPs.

“We know the laws about drink driving, but there are no laws about drink-voting,” says Emily Maitlis.

“And so she raises the question, which is not just, should people be allowed to drink on the job in Westminster, but are the votes being skewed by what people have had to drink?”

‘Parliament once had a drinking culture gone mad’

Jon Sopel says the culture inside the House of Commons has “changed massively” since he was reporting there.

“Now there are far fewer bars, and there is much less drunkenness," he says.

“It'd be amazing to meet anyone who didn't smell of alcohol back in the day, because all the bars were absolutely full of MPs.

“Certain MPs would spend the whole day in the bar. There was a drinking culture that had gone mad.”

Would MPs disobey the party whip after a pint?

Jon describes the comment made by Nigel Farage’s “over the top”, but says that in most jobs, people aren’t hanging around for hours waiting for a vote to happen.

He also adds that almost every MP will be on a three-line whip, with strict party instructions on how they will vote – sober or otherwise.

“You've got 600 people sitting around waiting for the vote to happen, knowing that they have to be there to vote, and they've been given instructions on which way they're going to vote,” Jon says.

“No one votes the wrong way because they've had a pint of bitter or a glass of wine.

“They're told by the whips if they are voting for, or voting against.”

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