The Londoner: Lords take control of MPs' brawl bar

Parliament's sports bar closes its doors / Matt Forde remembers wayward Chequers visit / Dominic Raab breaks away from Pret sandwich / Mark Rylance rallies anti-Trump troops / 
Bar closure: The Palace of Westminster:
NurPhoto via Getty Images
9 July 2018

Last orders at the Sports and Social Club Bar in Parliament, which is closing for refurbishment next week after a change of management.

The legendary bar in the basement of the Palace of Westminster will shut temporarily on July 18 after a number of years dogged by controversy after Parliament’s summer recess, which ends in September, it will re-open under the “austere” control of the House Lords authorities. Sources say it was decided that the contract would no longer be offered to private managers after a series of incidents, including several fights and some over-boisterous karaoke nights.

But many have pointed out on the Parliamentary Estate that a few spots of bother over several years in an establishment that caters for more than 16,000 pass-holders is no big deal. They believe the real reason for the takeover is the desire by Westminster overseers to curb the historic drinking culture while maximising profits.

The club, also known as The HoP Inn has a long history. It was originally the technical drawing room of the palace’s architect, Charles Barrie, and was later a changing room for baronesses. In its current incarnation, it was the setting of a punch-up involving former MP Eric Joyce and two police officers.

It also hit the headlines last autumn when MPs complained about a culture of harassment stemming from the bar. Labour MP Chi Onwurah asked Andrea Leadsom to investigate, and Leadsom promised to raise the issue with Lord McFall, who was already running an internal review into the bar.

The Sports and Social was also the preferred drinking place of SNP MPs, such as SNP MP Mhairi Black, left, say sources. Because of its hidden location, party members could pretend they were not indulging in London fleshpots. “Whatever its eventual reincarnation, the club as it was will be sorely missed,” says a source.

Miner headache in the Boris in-tray

If Boris Johnson didn’t have enough on his plate, actors Bill Nighy, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton are on his back. They have written to him after a screening of their film Pride, in which the gay community backs the striking miners, was banned in Turkey. “We are disturbed by reports of the growing repression of the LGBT+ community. Pride is a love story, a powerful tale of how one community under attack from a repressive government extended the hand of friendship to another.” We’re sure the Foreign Secretary will do everything he can.

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Political comedian Matt Forde was yesterday reminiscing about the time he visited Chequers. “I got howling drunk in the heat and told Tony Blair he was a f****** legend.” The former Labour Prime Minister responded: “I always wondered what it was you were attempting to say.”

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Branching out: Dominic Raab: (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
Getty Images

Dominic Raab has revealed that he “gets tweets now from Subway” after being teased for eating the same Pret sandwich every day. But the new Brexit Secretary says the rumour is untrue and that he actually believes “variety is very important”. “I do love a Pret Caesar baguette,” he concedes. “But I like all sorts of sandwiches.”

Are you missing America, Liv? Actress laps up our summertime vibe

Head bangers: Charlotte Tilbury and Liv Tyler (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Teenage Cancer Trust)
Dave Benett/Getty Images for Teenage Cancer Trust

Liv Tyler was among music-lovers gathered in the Hyde Park sunshine for the British Summer Time Festival yesterday. The Cure and Eric Clapton were among the performers. The American actress is now based in London with David Gardner, father of her two youngest children, Sailor and Lula. Tyler’s own childhood was extraordinary: she worked out that Steven Tyler of Aerosmith was her real father when she was eight after being struck by her resemblance to another of his daughters.

Tyler starred alongside Game of Thrones star Kit Harington in Guy Fawkes drama Gunpowder last year, and is now playing a socialite in Harlots, a period drama set in an 18th-century brothel. Last night she was joined by make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury and model Kate Moss. Backstage, Sadie Frost and her sons Rafferty Law and Finlay Munro enjoyed intothewhite, an exhibition of art works auctioned in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

SW1A

Theresa May’s press secretary, Paul Harrison, turned up at Downing Street in grubby T-shirt and jeans on Saturday — having been told by his boss Robbie Gibb he would do the same. Gibb (below), of course, was in smart blue suit and white shirt. Poor Harrison was forced to explain to the PM that Gibb had pranked him. It was Gibb’s revenge after Harrison tricked him on Friday night into thinking that he had to work on the Brexit comms strategy and could not go to the end-of-Cabinet dinner at Chequers. Boys, boys.

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David Davis’s resignation means his special adviser, Stewart Jackson, is off the leash. Last night Tory MP Sarah Wollaston complained that Brexit was not as simple a process as had been promised. This prompted Jackson to recall his meeting with Wollaston last year. “Fifteen minutes of my life listening to Sarah Wollaston whingeing about Brexit in November is time I’ll never get back.”

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UK's Trump card

Actor Mark Rylance argues it’s our duty to protest Donald Trump’s arrival in London this week because we have a unique influence over Americans. “I have a lot of friends in America who are watching Trump’s visit very closely,” he says. “If there isn’t a protest, it’s going to be a disaster. [A protest] is going to be very, very helpful. For all our wrongs as a nation, we shouldn’t underestimate the effect we have in standing up and saying, ‘No thank you, Mr Trump. There’s another way forward, a way together, a way with hope.’” Organisers are going to great lengths to keep the US President away from the public during his visit.

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