WESTMINSTER politicians reacted with outrage after a Green MP urged the Prime Minister to back her call to ban MPs from “drinking on the job”.
Hannah Spencer, the MP for Gorton and Denton, was mocked as she stood to ask her first question to the Prime Minister in the Commons on Wednesday, with one MP shouting: “Anyone want a pint?”
She made waves after being elected – having handily beat Labour and Reform UK in a major by-election upset – after expressing her shock that MPs got drunk in bars in Parliament between votes.
Her comments sparked a major debate about the role of MPs and whether they should be entitled to cheap alcohol in the parliamentary bars, such as Strangers.
Spencer said: “In Gorton and Denton, we have to pay full price for a pint but here, for some reason in here it’s cheaper and some MPs drink before voting. That really shocked me when I came to Parliament because it is our workplace.
“Now does the Prime Minister agree with his own MPs who’ve defended their right to drink cheap alcohol at work or does he agree with me that MPs shouldn’t be drinking on the job, given that we vote on huge things like the climate crisis, disabled people’s rights, housing, child poverty?”
Keir Starmer replied: “There are going to be different views on whether people should be able to enjoy a drink here or not.
“But I think we can agree that the majority of people in this country want an economy that works for them, public services that are there when they need them and every child going as far as their talent or ability will take them.
“But the only way to deliver that is through a Labour Government, as we are doing. The Greens think that their leader walks on water, it turns out that he just lives on water and doesn’t pay his council tax.”
