It’s a bar that has changed the course of political history. And now it has made history again by being closed after a drink-spiking allegation.
It’s the hub of social life in parliament, packed with MPs on nights of big Commons votes and a hotbed of intrigue, gossip, and political scandal.
In 1990, on the day of the first ballot in the Tory leadership election, Conservative MPs who had steadfastly supported Margaret Thatcher for more than a decade gathered in Strangers’ Bar at 11am.
There they ordered large whiskies to pluck up the courage to stab their heroine in the back and vote for Michael Heseltine.
“If I’m to commit political suicide, I need a drink first,” said a clubbable and extrovert Tory MP Barry Porter that night, convinced that he had signed his political death warrant.
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Instead, he and the Iron Lady’s other backbench deserters had signed hers, though, in a twist of fate, she was succeeded not by Michael Heseltine but by John Major.
More than a decade later, in 2012, it was the history of the Labour Party that was changed dramatically by a night of mayhem in Strangers’ Bar.
Falkirk MP Eric Joyce, who witnesses said was angry and drunk, started a brawl which led to him being convicted of assaulting two MPs and two Conservative councillors, shortly before closing time.
In extraordinary scenes, Mr Joyce headbutted Conservative MP Stuart Andrew, now shadow culture secretary, leaving him with a bloody nose and concussion, and punched Phil Wilson, who was Tony Blair’s successor as MP for Sedgefield.
Never has a pub brawl had such far-reaching consequences for British politics.
In the contest to select Mr Joyce’s successor in Falkirk, the giant Unite union was accused of trying to stitch up the candidate selection for left-winger Karie Murphy, who…
