Former senior officer defends House of Commons Sports and Social bar as a 'civilised place to drink'... a month after it closed due to a fight between staff

A popular parliamentary bar is a 'civilised place to drink', a former senior officer says in its defence
PA Wire/PA Images
Ella Wills7 January 2018

A popular House of Commons bar should not be viewed as a "den of iniquity", a former senior officer said.

David Leakey, who left the Black Rod parliamentary post at the end of last year, described the Sports and Social Club as "really well-run" and a civilised place for a drink.

He also said he does not believe allegations of sexual harassment in Westminster are "necessarily directly linked to a drinking culture" but are "isolated" incidents.

The bar was temporarily closed after an altercation involving two members of parliamentary staff last month.

The Sports and Social Club is one of the Palace of Westminster's busiest bars and is popular with parliamentary researchers, particularly on Thursday evenings when the Commons has either finished or is winding down its business for the week.

It was announced in November that responsibility for the bar would be taken in-house in an effort to clamp down on drink-fuelled inappropriate behaviour.

Mr Leakey defended the bar, telling BBC Radio 4's The Westminster Hour: "The Sports and Social Club is a really well-run bar.

"It's not been this den of iniquity. It's a very civilised place to go for a drink."

Asked if there was a drinking culture at Westminster, linked with bad behaviour and allegations of sexual harassment, Mr Leakey replied: "I don't think the allegations of sexual harassment is necessarily directly linked to a drinking culture.

"These are isolated incidents.

"It's a perfectly civilised working place for 99% of the people for 99% of the time and I think what goes on in Parliament is probably not that much different from what goes on in other well-regulated working places."

Mr Leakey reiterated warnings that the Houses of Parliament could be "unusable" if there is a fire, which could also result in "loss of life", or a "catastrophic failure" of the building's infrastructure.

He supports multi-billion pound restoration work to be carried out in one go, adding: "If we don't do it now then we might be having to salvage a building rather that restore a building."

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