Former Westminster bar manager claims she was pestered for sex by up to 30 MPs — including one who ‘groped her on the bus’
Alice Bailey, who worked in Parliament’s notorious Sports and Social Bar, reveals she was 'regularly pestered for sex by men working in Westminster'
A FORMER Westminster bar manager told how she was repeatedly pestered for sex by up to 30 MPs — including one who followed her out and groped her.
Alice Bailey, 25, who worked there for nearly four years, said some spent all day boozing — occasionally popping back into the chamber to vote before carrying on drinking until late.
Many behaved like “obnoxious old pervs”, she said, adding: “They fancied their chances because I was just a young barmaid and in their minds they were very important people who presumed I would be available.”
But she went on: “They were such creeps. It was pathetic as they were nearly all married and at least twice my age.”
Alice, who started working as a barmaid at Parliament’s notorious Sports and Social Bar - run by a social club and regulated by the House of Lords -when she was 19, told how:
- ONE SNP MP begged her for sex two hours into her first shift;
- A VETERAN Labour member sank 12 pints then followed her home and groped her;
- A WELSH MP spread lies about bedding her after she confronted him about his womanising;
- MPs enjoyed regular drunken snogs in corridors with researchers before heading back to their families;
- A PLUMBER visiting the bar told an MP to shut his mouth after he made lewd comments;
- BOOZY MPs and guests would regularly get through five bottles of Jagermeister a night.
The notorious Sports and Social Bar is in earshot of the Commons voting bell, so boozy members can nip to and from the chamber.
Alice, who started there in 2011, said: “They trot out and vote and pop back for a refill. What a life.”
She told how a Labour MP once had his first pint of Guinness at noon and was the only one left when she served him his 12th at 11.15pm.
Alice said: “He leaned over the bar and asked me - all slurry - to go back to his flat for a whisky.
“I had heard him bragging about sex before and knew he was after more than just a bit of company.
“He was old enough to be my grandad. I had a boyfriend and told him ‘No’ in no uncertain terms.”
She then locked up and left, but saw him loitering as she headed to a bus stop for the journey home.
Alice went on: “I assumed he would give up and got on the bus. But I was stunned when he hopped on as well and sat down beside me.
“Then he grabbed my thigh quite aggressively and said, ‘So what about that whisky, Alice?’ I screamed at him, ‘Just f*** off.’”
She jumped off and asked her bosses the next day if she should go to the police — but was told nobody would believe her.
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Alice said: “I realised in that moment what powerful people MPs are and I was just a kid behind the bar. Then to add insult to injury the MP came in with a youngish woman on his arm and smiled, as if to say, ‘Don’t worry I got another one’.”
Alice also reported another womanising MP who tried it on with her two hours into her very first shift.
She rejected the married SNP member’s pleas for her to go to his hotel room — and her manager later identified him without her even naming him. Alice recalled: “My boss said straightaway, ‘He’s always at it, just ignore him.’”
She said she was propositioned by up to 30 MPs before she left in 2015 - many from Northern and Scottish constituencies who were away from their families.
Alice said: “A lot of the MPs were put up at the Park Plaza Hotel just over Westminster Bridge.
“Many thought they were God’s Gift as they appeared on telly or in the papers. They would whisper their room number or drop the key card on the bar. It was pathetic.”
Alice, who was once ordered by her boss to wear a sexy Santa outfit for a Christmas party, also told how a Welsh Labour MP spread malicious rumours about her.
She said: “I saw him snogging a woman in a corridor one night.
“The next week he was upset, saying his wife was threatening to leave. I told him he should stop messing around with other women.
“A few weeks later I found out he had spread false rumours that he had slept with me. I was livid.”
Alice said members would regularly make obnoxious comments about her backside, and “say in lewd detail what they’d like to do”.
Teams of builders doing work at the Commons were said to be “appalled” by their behaviour. Alice, from Walsall, said: “I remember a plumber told one MP to shut his dirty mouth after he had been talking openly about sex in front of me. He was embarrassed for me and put him in his place.”
Alice called the cops the night Labour’s Eric Joyce got involved in an infamous punch-up there in 2013. The Sun also told last week how a sign there read: “What happens here stays here! Violators will be shot — survivors will be shot again.” It was taken down the next day.
Alice said: “I would stand there some nights and think it was unbelievable these are the people running the country. Most Thursday nights the bar would be rammed because most MPs went home on Friday and those who stayed over were partying with researchers.
“Nearly everyone would get paralytic on countless pints and shots.
“We would go through five bottles of Jagermeister and there would be all kinds of snogging and cuddling in the corridors. God knows what went on over in the Park Plaza.”
LIB Dem leader Sir Vince Cable last night admitted the party had let down victims of sexual harassment after claims it tried to cover up a rape allegation.
