Sunday: a day of rest, church and more headlines about Tory MPs misbehaving. Today’s unfortunate backbencher is David Warburton, who faces the unholy trinity of allegations about sex, drugs and undeclared Russian loans. The Somerset MP has now had the party whip withdrawn, following claims he took cocaine and was sexually inappropriate towards three women. He denies any wrongdoing.
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The excesses of the parliamentary Conservative party are by no means the only booze-related story in today’s newspapers. It appears that Lindsay Hoyle isn’t a fan of Mr S’s dispatches about sloshed parliamentary staffers snoozing off their hangovers overnight in their offices. For the Speaker has now reportedly launched a ‘new crackdown’ on the drinking culture within parliament after ‘several senior politicians and their staff’ recently had to be escorted from the estate after excessive alcohol consumption.
Neil Coyle had the Labour whip suspended in February after his expletive-laiden rants in Strangers’ Bar. Already word reaches Steerpike that ‘thirsty Thursdays’ – the day when MPs head back to their constituencies and their staff hit the town – could be a thing of the past. Discussions are underway about whether to ban Commons staff from the parliamentary bars on that night, with no less than six doorkeepers greeting Steerpike on a recent Thursday trip.
Group chats in the parliamentary press corps are meanwhile ablaze with gossip as to which of their number has had their lobby pass suspended, following reports about
their raucous behaviour. The identity of the intoxicated hack is as yet unknown but judging by the amount of sleuthing going on, Mr S suspects it will soon be revealed.
More importantly, parliamentary authorities are now probing possible parties which took place in the House of Commons during lockdown. The Sunday Times claims that at least two drinks parties are being investigated, including one involving a minister and their special advisers on the Commons terrace next to the Thames.
Perhaps Hoyle’s crackdown is because he’s worried about being accosted by a thirsty MP the next time he declares ‘order, order.’
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