SOBERING TIMES AT THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

AS THE festive party season arrives, parliamentary folk have one less watering hole in which to raise a glass this year.

The Sports and Social Club, a cavernous pub in the bowels of the House of Lords, has been closed following an alleged brawl. And in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal that has swept political and public life in recent weeks, the incident has again put Westminster’s drinking culture in the dock.

Some MPs are even questioning whether alcohol should be so freely available within a modern democratic assembly. “Parliament is a workplace and not a fun palace,” one backbencher told me.

Defenders of Parliament’s bars point out that the days of MPs and peers boozing at the taxpayers’ expense are gone. Alcohol sales in the Commons and Lords are no longer subsidised and last year brought in a £1million profit used to offset other catering costs. Yet drinks within the palace remain cheaper than those served in other pubs and bars around Westminster facing commercial rents and rates.

The issue is expected to come to a head when a decision is taken about the proposed £4billion refurbishment of Parliament. Commons authorities intend the overhaul to turn the crumbling building into a workplace fit for the 21st century. Critics may question whether taxpayers’ money should be spent on sprucing up bars. The rooms could be transformed into tea, coffee and snack outlets instead.

Boozing has declined at Westminster with the reduction in the number of late-night sittings. Parliamentary drinking dens including Annie’s Bar, once notorious for gossip and plotting, have been shut. The modernist, glass-roofed Portcullis House with its cappuccino outlets is now the main meeting point for MPs, researchers and the rest of the Westminster village.

But if the refurbishment does herald a bright new world of café latte and fruit smoothies, something may be lost. Parliament’s bars and terraces have fuelled generations of political friendships and alliances.

What would Bollinger and brandy loving Winston Churchill make of such an abstemious vision of Westminster’s future?