In today's Westminster Extra, Westminster City Council's Leader Paul Swaddle reject reports that the council plans to ban standing up and drinking in pubs, calling the claims confusing and misleading. He argues the criticism has been driven by the Mayor of London's own push to take control of licensing decisions rather than genuine concerns from residents or business owners, pointing to Westminster's rejection of fewer than 1.5% of licence applications as evidence of its pro-growth approach. Swaddle says the council remains committed to delivering a city that works for all, with safe streets and a thriving nightlife, and will not let what he calls a manufactured row distract from that goal.
There is no plan to ban standing drinking here
We have seen a wave of confusing and misleading stories about our licensing policy.
So let me be clear: there is no plan, and there never has been, to ban drinking while standing up in a Westminster pub. Anyone telling you otherwise is wrong.
The stories have prompted real questions, and we welcome them. We will take the time to answer them properly and set out, in plain English, exactly what this policy does and does not do.
What does not change?
Standing and drinking in pubs. Our goal is safe streets and a thriving nightlife, not one or the other. How we get there is what this consultation is for, and no amount of noise will change that.
Westminster's record speaks for itself. Growth is central to everything this administration is doing, and that means backing hospitality, not strangling it in red tape.
We reject fewer than 1.5 per cent of the licence applications we receive and recently launched our own campaign to get people back out enjoying Soho.
No lectures from Sir Sadiq Khan's City Hall... we will not accept lectures on backing hospitality from a mayor who has directed the Metropolitan Police to object to new licences in the West End as a way to cut crime, instead of giving them the budget and tech that they have asked for to do the job properly.
If the mayor was serious about delivering the best West End possible, he would support the police so people can go out safely. He would stop cuts to night buses and bring in late-night tubes on Thursdays so they could get out and home again afterwards. But he is not serious about anything other than grabbing more power.
We saw this on Oxford Street. He claims he doesn't have enough money for services and housing but can find £150million for his pet project when he still hasn't answered basic questions on step-free access, traffic displacement, waste removal or emergency services.
What we have seen in the media is an attack on Westminster orchestrated by the mayor in his quest to take control of licensing. The mayor's priority is more power for himself. Our priority is the people, businesses, and residents of Westminster.
Let's be honest about where this confusion came from, it did not come from residents or business owners asking fair questions. It came from people with their own agenda looking to score a cheap political point.
Ask us a real question, and you will get a real answer.
Westminster Conservatives promised a city that works for all, with streets that are safe and a nightlife people are proud of. We are delivering both, and we will not let a manufactured row distract from that.
