Hannah Spencer has reopened a raw Westminster argument about drinking in parliament, saying she was “really uneasy” about the culture she found there and that “you can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes.”
Spencer, who won the Gorton and Denton byelection in February, said there had been cases of “questionable and dangerous behaviour” by staff and potentially some MPs because of what she called an unprofessional drinking culture. She told she did not think it was much to ask for an MP to be sober when they vote on decisions that affect everyone else, and added: “I’d have been sacked at work if I did this, same goes for almost every profession, but especially working-class jobs.”
The comments cut into a long-running complaint about Westminster, where alcohol has been woven into the working day for generations. Parliament’s Strangers bar, one of several subsidised bars where MPs can often be found between votes, closed temporarily last year after an alleged spiking incident. Security measures were tightened after that episode, and visitors and parliamentary staff can now use the bar only with an MP present.
The reaction was immediate and partisan. Nigel Farage mocked Spencer’s remarks by saying: “The Greens are happy to legalise heroin and crack, but now we learn they think an afternoon pint is a step too far.” Zack Polanski defended her on X, saying: “Of course Farage misrepresents what Hannah is saying. An afternoon pint is different to drinking on a work day and then going to vote on decisions for millions of people.”
Others in parliament were quick to argue that drinking is simply part of the job. Luke Charters wrote: “Breaking news: MPs are human and sometimes have a drink.” He added that MPs work long days for constituents and sometimes share a drink in the evening with colleagues. Emily Thornberry, by contrast, said she remembered being surprised by the drinking culture when she first arrived, though she also said: “It’s actually much better than it used to be.” A 2024 intake Labour MP said the social pressure still runs deep, saying she had been asked whether she was pregnant when she chose orange juice instead of wine at events and adding: “Drinking is so normalised.”
Spencer’s intervention matters because it did not come from a detached critic but from a newly elected MP speaking from inside the system. The row now turns on a basic question Westminster has never fully answered for itself: whether a workplace that makes its own laws should still tolerate a culture where drinking between votes is treated as normal.
