Downing up to 16 pints of Stella Artois a night, MP Neil Coyle was warned by doctors he’d kill himself.
The three or four lagers an hour he’d sink in Parliament’s popular Strangers’ Bar, advised the medic, would trigger a stroke, heart attack and probably death.
Coyle told how sometimes buying a round for four he’d order five drinks to drain two himself.
Now aged 44, the dad of one who started boozing as a 14-year-old schoolboy when his mum and dad took him to a Luton social club, is completely dry.
As a student at Hull University, he’d play a golf course drinking game, sinking a pint in 18 different watering holes.
“There were only three of us who ever made 18 without vomiting, passing out or disappearing,” he says.
“I was always a big drinker. We were encouraged to drink. I was one of those who could always put it away.”
Wednesday will mark the first anniversary of Coyle giving up alcohol, turning a corner.
“I’m amazed I have got this far. I won’t pretend it was easy but I had to give up alcohol when I was drinking far more, much more, than was good for me or healthy,” he says.
“I knew I wasn’t in control, unhealthy, overweight, was drinking so much, up to 16 pints of lager a night, without really realising it was so much that I was advised to cease gradually and given medication to prevent my body reacting badly to the lack of alcohol.
“The doctors said if I didn’t cease I’d probably have a stroke, heart attack and kill myself.
“I’ve saved hundreds of pounds, sleep better, lost nearly three stones now, am more energetic and active, saved time with no hangovers and doing more with my daughter, which is brilliant.”
Outspoken Coyle, MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark in South London, took the seat for Labour from Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes in 2015.
A direct speaker from a working class family, he transformed a Lib Dem 8,530 majority into a Labour stronghold and 16,126 majority.
His excessive drinking was usually five nights a week, Sunday to Thursday, and the deaths in 2021 of his father and a close friend noticed him consume even more.
The brutal wake-up call for stressed Coyle came over two nights in Parliament a year ago this month. On the first, he swore loudly at a Labour aide.
The following evening, he was accused of racist comments to a journalist of British Chinese heritage by referring to China as “Fu Manchu” a stereotypical supervillain from the early 20th Century.
He made other derogatory comments, accusing the reporter of looking as if he gave the Chinese renminbi currency to another MP, Barry Gardiner, who’d accepted £500,000 for office funding from a woman alleged to be a Chinese agent.
Suspended by Labour and banned from Parliament’s bars for six months and Coyle’s contrite ahead of a report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and possible punishment.
“I take personal responsibility for what happened and I’m embarrassed about the Chinese references,” he says, adding he can’t remember what he said on that fateful night.
“I caused upset and that’s the bottom line and I have to own that.
“That makes me sad. I lived and taught near Beijing. Two brothers have Chinese wives and I’m uncle to two nieces and a nephew. People who know me know that’s not me. The stigma of being labelled Sinophobic is hurting. I have let them down.”
Coyle now attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Parliament and Bermondsey. “I know people can be funny about that but it’s what you make of it,” he says.
“Going to the first meeting was intimidating but you’re made to feel welcome and discover people from all backgrounds are going through it, some with experiences much worse than yours.”
Yet Coyle doesn’t want alcohol to be banned in Westminster, to shut the bars. His solution is to give MPs, peers and staff more help.
“Parliament has facilitated it. I always lost a bit of weight and drank less when Parliament wasn’t sitting,” he says.
He’d like a greater system providing assistance to those suspected or recognised with problems and questions whether alcohol needs to be sold at lunchtime.
“But I wouldn’t ban alcohol,” he adds.
“I recognise others drink responsibly in a way I didn’t.”
As he waits to learn his fate, Coyle adds: “The old Neil would be dead from a stroke now if he had carried on.
"What friends say is that I’m still that sweary Neil, a Neil still with the directness but without the insensitivity, a little more thoughtful. I’m happy with that.”
Alcoholics Anonymous can be contacted with complete discretion guaranteed on 0800 9177 650 or help@aamail.org
