British Politicians Are Drinking Less Booze

It's no secret that many British MPs are partial to a drink. If they're not pulling pints like a "normal guy" during election season, they're boozing when they should be in the Commons, or chugging subsidised red wine with lunch in the staff cafeteria.

But it seems such parliamentary boozing habits could be on the wane. A new report from the Government Wine Cellar (yes, an actual thing) shows that politicians are drinking less alcohol.

And Brexit is to blame.

According to the latest figures from the wine cellar, which provides booze for Government events, MPs and their guests got through 3,261 bottles in the year to March 2017. Although it's hardly a dent in the 33,669 bottles currently stocked in the cellar, the figure is down 12 percent on 2015/16. The reason? Fewer official receptions were given during the Brexit referendum.

But before you feel sorry for those poor, hard-working politicians who surely deserve a couple of glasses of free lukewarm fizz to help see them through Britain's divorce from Europe, the stuff they are knocking back is more expensive than last year. The average price of a bottle of wine served at Government events during 2016/17 was £12 (not exactly your £5.50 Jacob's Creek) and the average price of bottles purchased to replenish stocks jumped from £11 to £15. Unlike the country's ever-widening deficit, though, the Government Wine Cellar funds itself by buying and selling high-value vintages and collecting payment for booze from other Government departments.

With Theresa May vowing to deliver Brexit by 2019, Philip Hammond could learn a thing or two from the wine cellar bookkeepers.