In a recent interview, the newly elected MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, has criticised fellow-MPs drinking whilst in Westminster. For Emma Peplow, head of Contemporary History, these comments led her straight to the HPT’s oral history archive.
Hannah Spencer is not the first new MP to remark disapprovingly on Parliament’s drinking culture. From the viewpoint of our oral history archive, however, MPs’ tendencies to drink whilst on the estate changed considerably between the 1960s and early 2010s.
In the late 20th century, Parliament did not sit until 2.30pm between Monday and Thursday, with the final vote officially taking place at 10pm. However, late sittings – where the House agreed to continue past 10pm – were incredibly common: 71% of all sitting days between 1979-2002 finished later, and a quarter of the time the House rose after midnight. There were some now infamous periods where the Commons sat all night, such as small Labour majorities between 1974-79 or during the Maastricht debates in the 1990s. In the 2000s the sitting hours changed to become more ‘family friendly’, with the last vote scheduled at 7pm most evenings. Alongside new powers for the government to limit how long a bill could be debated, meant that since 2002 the House only sat past 10pm 27% of the time [Carthew, p.9]
MPs could not leave Westminster whilst the House was sitting without permission from the whips: they were needed physically on the estate in order to cast their vote. This led to a pervasive drinking culture, as described by the Labour/SDP MP Bryan Magee:
It is certainly true that MPs tended to drink a lot because they were asked to hang around a lot. It’s the hanging around that causes the drinking. All the important votes were taken late at night. […] The question in the evening was: what were you going to do while you were hanging around? If you’d had a very full busy day, most people didn’t feel like still continuing to work in the evening. They would either read the papers or snooze in the library or above all go to one of the bars and drink with their friends.
For many MPs, friendships that developed over these late nights were one of the most positive experiences of Parliament. The Conservative MP David Sumberg enjoyed this side of politics; drinking was ‘very tempting. You were stuck there: it was a very convivial atmosphere’. Labour’s Ben Ford remembered ‘I was never lonely, alone or depressed.’ Many reasoned that if you were stuck on the estate at least you had the camaraderie of your colleagues, and developed tactics to cope with temptations to drink. Many insisted that they personally did not drink in the daytime or if they were due to speak in the chamber. Labour’s Joan Ruddock decided she would ‘never drink spirits’ but just a glass of wine with her meals. Richard Luce remembered being advised to stick to the lime and soda by former Conservative cabinet minister Willie Whitelaw (apparently this was not advice Whitelaw chose to follow himself).
Of course, drinking could get out of hand, especially in the period before parliament was televised and the consequences could be kept quiet, as described by former Conservative MP Kenneth Baker:
Whilst Conservative MPs would gather in the club-like Smoking room, Labour MPs were more likely to be found in Stranger’s Bar. Labour’s David Hinchliffe remembers one of his first experiences there before he had been assigned a parliamentary office:
Journalists were often found drinking with MPs in Annie’s Bar. Labour’s Ron Davies remembered a ‘club’ forming amongst the regulars that wore a special tie in the chamber if they had drunk so many pints before Question Time at 2.30pm: ‘it was sad really.’
By the time these memories were being recorded in our archive it is clear, however, that this behaviour had become completely taboo – not least because barely any MPs admit to being drunk themselves whilst Parliament was sitting. Anecdotes of bad behaviour are usually accompanied by a reassurance that the individual telling the story stuck to orange juice. We can trace this culture changing from around the 1990s. Whereas before those who didn’t drink saw this as a disadvantage – Labour’s Win Griffiths remembered, for example, that his alcohol allergy and inability to frequent the bars prevented him from ‘joining a team with a leading light’ in the party. Those who sat later, in the 1990s or early 2000s, might describe alternative ways of spending their time: playing bridge (Jackie Ballard) or karaoke groups: ‘you’ve got to let your hair down’ (Alison Raynsford). Raynsford remarked that this trend was even changing the layout of the Palace, remembering that there were fewer bars when she was an MP than when she had worked as a parliamentary assistant in the 1980s.The Scottish Labour MPs Jim Murphy and Frank Roy both describe playing video games together in their office to pass the time.
In recent years, then, the older generation of MPs often remarked that the culture had changed considerably. As Conservative Michael Knowles remembered in 2017: ‘When I was there it was still, I wouldn’t say heavy drinking, but everybody drank. Now I get the impression that everybody is on water and tea all the time.’ MPs of all generations expressed concern about colleagues who fell victim to the drinking culture, as alcohol remained readily available even if overall drinking levels seemed to decline. Recent interviews with Liberal Democrat MPs, for example, describe party members trying to support their leader Charles Kennedy with his issues, especially those who arrived in the House in 2005. Lynne Featherstone remembered feeling torn calling for his resignation over his drinking:
‘It feels terrible to this day. Our local parties were furious with us: everyone loved Charlie. He was a fine, fine person, a fine parliamentarian, a decent human being. […] It was so serious we couldn’t go on, but it was horrible.’
The presence of bars, and the culture of drinks receptions at Westminster today, then, remains something of a hangover from a parliamentary culture that has changed considerably in the 21st century.
E.P.
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Interviews referenced
C1503/13, Kenneth Baker by Mike Greenwood [Track 1, 01:03:38-01:03:50]
C1503/49, Bryan Magee by Sandy Ruxton [Track 3, 01:16:30-01:17:30]
C1503/51, Richard Luce by Mike Greenwood [Track 1, 01:05:21-01:06:00]
C1503/56, Ben Ford by Henry Irving [Track 2, 00:21:40-00:21:50]
C1503/65, David Hinchliffe by Christine Vergunson [Track 2, 00:49:30-00:50:35]
C1503/155, Michael Knowles by Andrea Hertz [Track 1, 01:24:20-01:25:50]
C1503/195, David Sumberg by Connie Jeffery [Track 11, 39:40-40:45]
C1503/203, Ron Davies by Paul Silk [Track 2, 01:05:20-01:06:00]
C1503/229, Lynne Featherstone by Stephen Abbott [Track 2, 2:11:00-2:11:30]
C1503/239, Joan Ruddock by Debra Davidson-Smith [Track 5, 00:20:15-:00:21:10]
C1503/242, Alison Raynsford by Grace Heaton [Track 4, 00:59:25 -01:01:20]
C1503/258, Jim Murphy by Nick Walker [Track 4, 00:19:25-00:20:30]
Further reading
Helena Carthew, House of Commons: Hours Sat & Late Sittings (Commons Library Research Briefing, 9 August 2023)
Emma Peplow and Priscila Pivatto, The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs: An Oral History of Parliament (London: Bloomsbury, 2018)
Emma Peplow and Priscila Pivatto, ‘Life stories from the House of Commons: the History of Parliament oral history project’, Oral History, 47:2 (2019), pp.95-105