PM's Chief Secretary defends MPs drinking in the Commons insisting ‘they’re not conducting open heart surgery’
"I don't have a problem when MPs are on the estate until 10 or 11 o' clock at night, having a glass of wine with their dinner," he insisted.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Darren Jones has defended MPs' right to drink in the House of Commons following claims elected politicians regularly drink before key votes.
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Mr Jones, MP for Bristol North West, insisted fellow MPs have the right to drink at one of several Commons bars because they are 'office workers' and 'not conducting open heart surgery’.
"I'm not someone that frequents the pubs in the House of Commons very often," Mr Jones told LBC.
"I suppose the point is that there are sometimes votes that go very late into the night. You know, 10pm or 11pm at night. It's not every day. It's often on a Monday - and it's not every Monday."
"I don't have a problem when MPs are on the estate until 10 or 11 o' clock at night, having a glass of wine with their dinner. I mean, I don't think that's a problem in the South.
It comes after Green Party MP Hannah Spencer raised concerns over the appropriateness of drinking during the working day and "before votes" during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday.
The comments appeared to rile fellow MPs as she tackled parliament’s drinking culture head on.
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The Green party MP, who won the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, insisted she felt “really uneasy” about Parliament's drinking culture in a recent interview.
She branded the drinking culture “unprofessional” and highlighted reduced costs of a pint for MPs inside the Commons come at a time where a cost of living crisis is gripping the UK.
"MPs are office workers. They're not conducting open heart surgery," Mr Jones told LBC.
"I think if you worked in insurance or banking or in legal services or even in a call centre and you're working until late, you're allowed to go and have something to eat on an evening.
Pushed by Ben on the optics of drinking alcohol at a vastly reduced price during the working day, Mr Jones defended the right to "have a glass of wine with their dinner".
"It is fine with me. Obviously, if there are MPs who are drinking to excess, that is not acceptable. It is a place of work.
"We need to make sure that people are acting responsibly. But I don't accept the characterization that you've got a whole tonne of MPs drunk running around the building. I mean, I've never, ever seen that before," he said.
Adding: "What I have seen is MPs when they're working very late into the evening, having started at the normal time of."