The Labour MP and the snooping pub landlady

Labour MPs out for a family pub meal, be careful. Don’t spend enough or tip, and the landlady may not just report that to the media, but also what you might have been looking up on your phone while eating!

That’s the experience of one Labour MP, the owner of whose local gastropub was so perturbed by him only ordering a starter that she kept her beady eye on him throughout the meal before penning a piece for an industry website that he was “glued to his phone throughout the meal” and speculating that he was “probably Googling his own name to see what came up”.

The unnamed MP – believed to be Hexham’s Labour MP Joe Morris – was visiting the Rat Inn in the nearby hamlet of Anick when he incurred the wrath of owner Karen Errington by only ordering a starter.

“I knew who he was,” wrote the knowledgeable owner in an article for the Morning Advertiser, the pub industry’s bible. “He didn’t make eye contact or make any effort to inquire how business was.

“His table did the starter thing with no main course. Then at the end of the meal there was no tip. As my granny would say, ‘Nix, naught, nowt.’”

Errington wrote that Morris was “glued to his phone throughout the meal, looking at his Instagram account to see how many likes he had or probably Googling his own name to see what came up”, adding, conspiratorially: “Yes, we are well placed when serving at the table to see exactly what you’re looking at without being spotted.

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Rats in a Sack

“I get that people are entitled to private time, but I didn’t ask him to put himself forward for public office, he chose to do that himself and with that comes a certain expectation of how you conduct yourself in the public domain – you only need to look at recent news to be aware of that.” (It is not clear what news Errington is referring to here. Is she comparing only ordering a starter to Peter Mandelson?)

She added: “As they left, I briefly thought of giving him a few tips of my own. Instead, I smiled and politely thanked him for coming. This government is completely tone deaf. Beam me up, Scotty, there’s no intelligent life down here.”

The article appears to have since been removed from the Advertiser’s website, but it was picked up by the Daily Mail, which seems to have led to a number of mischievous reviews for the Rat since appearing on TripAdvisor.

These include “Very uncomfortable writing this review as the landlady appears to be watching over my shoulder”, “Service was polite, though we were unaware that eye contact is now a mandatory part of the dining experience”, “don’t go here if you don’t like being spied on and called out by tabloids for only ordering a starter” and “Lovely looking pub and a lovely location but the owner is a bit judgy”.

As for Morris himself, a “friend” told the Mail the final bill had been more than £150 and the party had not left a tip because they assumed a service charge had been automatically added to their bill. “Joe had contacted the Rat Inn earlier this year to congratulate them on being recognised at the Gastropub Awards and made it clear he was looking forward to visiting the pub,” they said.

Rats in a Sack (no relation to the pub) suspects he might not be returning soon!