MPs show support for British Pub Week

The event at the Red Lion pub on Whitehall, central London, saw recently appointed pubs minister, Andrew Percy, and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, Greg Mulholland, join several of their fellow members of parliament and a serving member of the House of Lords to show their support for British Pub Week.

The annual celebration of the British pub takes place this week (from 28 October to 5 November) and politicians were keen to show their support at the Westminster event. Mulholland and Percy were joined by John Healey, John Spellar, Simon Danczuk and Nick Thomas Symonds from the Labour party, as well as Conservatives Laurence Robertson, Nigel Evans and Andrew Stephenson. Also in attendance and showing her support for British Pub Week was Green Party peer, Baroness Jenny Jones.

Great to have @CommunitiesUK#PubsMinister Andrew Percy joining MPs & peers at @british_pubweek Westminster event! @sheeno24#BritishPubWeekpic.twitter.com/i2VXQQS2bO

— Greg Mulholland (@GregMulholland1) November 1, 2016

"We've had a good turnout from MPs showing their support and tweeting their support for both pubs in their constituency and the country," Mulholland said.

Pubs minister​, Percy, added: "It's a brilliant initiative and well done to those that founded it.

"In my village [of Airmyn, Yorkshire], the pub is very helpfully called the Percy Arms. The reason I mention that is because the Percy Arms is an example of a pub that was dying, but one landlord managed to invest an awful lot of money into it and turn it into a food pub while keeping it as a community pub and it's absolutely thriving now. 

"It's saddening that so many communities have lost them [pubs] because they are an integral part of our economy and, much more importantly, I think integral to the character of who we are as a people. The British pub is part of who we are and that's why I want to support it in this role."

Pubs code implementation discussed

Earlier in British Pub Week, Mulholland hosted a Save the Pub group meeting with Percy, where they discussed the implementation of the pubs code, pubs in the planning system, the new business rates system and maintaining the beer duty freeze.

"It was great to discuss with Andrew the need for the Government to show its support for pubs and the Save the Pub Group look forward to working with him and his team for the benefit of pubs in every part of the United Kingdom," Mulholland said.

British Pub Week was founded in 2010 by Inez Ward from Justice For Licensees. "It is about celebrating pubs right across the country and uniting the pub trade in doing so," she said.