Has the ‘ Disneyland’ Commons had its day?

‘THIS is Westminster, not Disneyland,’ an outraged Barry Sheerman MP once complained over plans to ‘pimp out’ Parliament to let private firms hire Westminster rooms for corporate booze and schmoozefests.

Traditionally, big shots from the banking, arms and energy sectors hooked up with a tame politician to ‘sponsor’ an event. But then privatising the Members’ Dining Room became the new wheeze.

For a miserly £4,500, lobbyists and multinationals could book reception rooms with the Commons banqueting services. The move was initially defended as a means to help offset the £1 billion cost of restoring the Palace of Westminster.

But I can reveal that senior crossparty MPs have tired of this ‘Commons for Hire’ culture and a review is under way. Tory MP Sir Charles Walker, chair of the Commons administration committee, promises tough new controls when Parliament fully reopens. ‘The Commons must not be confused with a Las Vegas wedding factory,’ he told me.

With cronyism so rife, it’ll be quite a challenge to clean up Parliament. But the move coincides with concerns over Chinese influence in the UK. Groups accused of Communist Party links have booked events at the Commons, such as an association representing people from the Chinese province of Zhejiang who live in the UK. Another foreign-paying host was the United Arab Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, which is currently embroiled in a legal battle in UK courts over allegations its authorities hacked a company’s emails. The Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority has denied any involvement in the hack. Also, those tarred by the 2008 global financial crisis – Morgan Stanley, Citibank and Deutsche – have entertained at Parliament, along with the notorious polluters Shell and Rio Tinto.

Meanwhile, OneWeb – a then bankrupt satellite company which controversially received £385 million from a Government investment – hired the Churchill Room.

A Commons spokesman has confirmed the review of rules to stop Parliament being a Disneyland for the rich and shameless – with British taxpayers playing Dumbo.

PARLIAMENT’S antisleaze watchdog has sent Labour MP Ian Byrne on an IT re-education course following his ‘inappropriate’ use of Zoom. No sexual impropriety. His crime was to use his taxpayer-funded parliamentary account for party-political messaging.

COMMONS Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is spending Easter at his Lancashire home, on his wife’s orders, clearing their garden of rubbish and dumping it in a skip.

Much like his Westminster day job, I suppose.

DENIS Healey described debating with his rival Geoffrey Howe as ‘like being savaged by a dead sheep’. Forty years later, the politics of these big beasts has been replaced by pygmies sniping at each other. A No 10 insider says of former Junior Minister Sir Alan Duncan’s jibes at ex- colleagues in his new memoirs: ‘ It’s like being savaged by a limp flannel.’