Boozing MPs blow £3,000 at hotel bar ... on trip to honour the fallen of D-Day
MPs and their spouses ran up a £3,000 bill drinking on a junket to the D-Day beaches last month – paid for by the arms industry.
Some carried on boozing until the early hours, even though earlier in the day elsewhere in Normandy, a Catholic priest had been murdered in a church near Rouen by a proIslamic State fanatic.
The next day, some of the MPs on the all-party Armed Forces Group were bleary-eyed as they visited D-Day beaches where thousands of Allied troops died in June 1944. The disclosure is bound to lead to claims that MPs have failed to learn the lesson of the 2009 expenses scandal.
The £3,030 bill was for a banquet and drinks for about 20 MPs, five spouses and other guests at the historic Lion D’Or Hotel in Bayeux, which has hosted D-Day commander General Dwight Eisenhower.
Tory MP Colonel Bob Stewart, the group leader, who took his wife and his son, last night defended the trip. He said the £3,000 bill was for the dinner, ‘drinks all the way through the evening from the reception and drinks during dinner and after dinner’.
Col Stewart, who was the British UN commander in Bosnia, said it included other guests – not just the 20 MPs.
Asked why they had made the visit on the 72nd anniversary of the invasion, MPs said it was to learn the lessons of the Second World War and the sacrifices made on D-Day.
Fellow Tory MP Adam Holloway, who was also on the trip, said learning about war was ‘more important than a bar bill’.
The MPs paid a mere £100 each for the three-day trip, which included a visit to key battle site Pegasus Bridge. Some said partners had to pay extra.
The rest, including the £3,000 entertaining bill and the £90-a-night hotel rooms, a coach from Westminster and an overnight ferry, was picked up by firms from the defence sector, which has provided the allparty group with £50,000 worth of sponsorship this year.
The total subsidy for the trip is thought to be up to £10,000. Clarion Events, which organises arms trade fairs, is understood to have contributed to the £3,000 Lion D’Or bill.
One MP said: ‘These all-party groups are a scandal waiting to happen. Lobbyists are falling over themselves to sponsor MPs’ groups because they think it gives them access and influence.’
Asked if he reassured MPs the morning after the Lion D’Or drinking session that sponsors paid the bar bill, Mr Stewart said: ‘That’s probably what I said.’
Asked why he took his wife, Clare and their son, he replied: ‘Because I paid a lot of money and did all the reconnaissance.’
Mr Stewart said he had stayed up ‘relatively late’ but denied other MPs were up all night. Mr Holloway said the trip was ‘good fun’ and an ‘extraordinary education’. He added: ‘We need more things like that so that MPs don’t make atrocious decisions about taking the country to war, which is more important than a bar bill.’
He could not recall what time he went to bed.
A Clarion Events spokesman said: ‘We were delighted to be one of a number of companies to sponsor and join the MPs’ D-Day visit.’
Tory MP Graham Evans, who was accompanied by his wife Cheryl, said he paid extra to fund her trip. They went to bed early.
Tory MP Jo Churchill is said to have taken her husband. Others on the trip included Conservatives James Gray and Oliver Colvile, and Labour MPs Madeleine Moon and Toby Perkins. They all went to bed early.
A defiant Mrs Moon said: ‘I will not slag off arms companies which are an integral part of our security.’