Why is it so easy for MPs to get hammered in the Houses of Parliament?

Green Party MP Hannah Spencer has become the latest Westminster newcomer to ask a pretty sensible question: why are so many people getting smashed around here?

In an interview with PoliticsJoe that was widely shared over the weekend, Spencer said she was ‘really uneasy’ about the amount of drinking she’s witnessed from some of her colleagues on the estate.

‘I can’t imagine if a cleaner did that,’ she said. ‘Or someone in a bank had a few drinks and then went back to work, smelling of alcohol.’

Particularly troubling, in her mind, was the booze-swilling that some MPs engaged in before returning to the chamber to vote on some major issue facing the country.

And she’s got a point. Famously, there are multiple bars in the Palace of Westminster where drinks are subsidised – and they are very conveniently located.

As the nights continue to draw out and the weather grows warmer, Parliament’s riverside terrace gets more crowded with legislators and their staff keen to enjoy a glass of wine or cold beer in a spectacular setting.

Then, on one of the frequent days when work stretches late into the evening, you might see them knock back the dregs and head back inside when the division bell rings.

Spencer rightly points out that this is not a normal state of affairs in other workplaces across the country. So how is this considered acceptable?

How did Parliament end up with pubs?

The first point to make is that the Palace of Westminster is a unique workplace. It’s enormous, it’s busy, and it’s very old.

Booze has been served on the parliamentary estate since at least 1773, when a man called John Bellamy – deputy housekeeper to the House of Commons – set up a refreshments stall and called it Bellamy’s.

As the building transformed over the subsequent centuries, most notably after it was destroyed in the 1834 fire, a variety of new options opened up.

Today, the most famous pub on the estate is Strangers’ Bar, which is the one with outdoor tables on the terrace overlooking the Thames. It’s open to MPs, staff, guests, and journalists.

Tucked away inside the building is the Woolpack, known until 2018 as the Sports and Social Club Bar, which has closer links to the House of Lords.

Elsewhere in the Palace there are more exclusive venues such as the Pugin Room, named after the architect who designed the iconic new building following the fire.

Why do people want to scrap them or keep them?

When I asked MPs what they thought about the pubs in Parliament and Spencer’s comments, I got a range of responses.

One veteran Tory told me with an arguably misplaced sense of pride: ‘If she thinks there’s a lot of drinking now, she should have seen what it was like 20 years ago!’

Reform leader Nigel Farage branded Spencer a ‘puritan’ who ‘wants to ban everything’.

But I was also told MPs find Strangers’ Bar an ideal setting in which to have ‘valuable political chats’ or ‘just unwind after a busy day’.

This may be the strongest argument for the existence of the boozers. The word ‘Parliament’ comes from the Old French ‘to speak’ – and where better to thrash out issues and work out differences than over a pint at the pub?

However, Spencer is far from the first person to wonder whether things have gone a bit too far.

In an appearance on the podcast Some Laugh last year, former SNP MP Mhairi Black cited the drinking culture as one of her biggest problems with Westminster, saying: ‘Everything almost encourages it.’

And it may not be a coincidence that two of the top critics are young women.

Last year, Strangers’ Bar was shut down for a month after a parliamentary researcher said her drink had been spiked.

It was just the latest in a long list of allegations around concerning or criminal behaviour at the bar, including groping and sexual misconduct.

It was reported in November 2024 that some MPs were encouraging Parliament’s modernisation committee to curb drinking in working hours.

Still, the long history of the UK’s parliamentarians getting sozzled at work is not yet over.

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