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A Tory arrested after being accused of stealing a £150 bottle of champagne at the conference today admitted behaving “rather foolishly”.
Party worker Philip Whittington, 27, was held after taking the drink from a fridge at the Midland Hotel bar as he celebrated the first day of the gathering.
He was released without charge after claiming he had always intended to pay. But the incident is likely to cause embarrassment for the Tories after chairman Eric Pickles banned conspicuous champagne consumption. Mr Whittington is now not allowed into any more conference events and could face disciplinary action.
Today he said: “We were in rather high spirits but I wouldn't say we were drunk. We were standing at the back of the bar near a fridge of champagne and there were no conference staff or hotel staff around so we took a bottle and thought we could pay for it later.
“When we finished the first we opened another and suddenly the manager appeared and said, Right, you can pay for that.' I opened my wallet when he said I could pay for two.
“When I asked him why two, he became rather aggressive and said I could pay for three.
“At that point my friends rather foolishly said I should make myself scarce, so rather foolishly I did and went outside the hotel, where the police got involved and arrested me, even though we had always intended to pay.
“The party then rescinded my pass so on Tuesday afternoon I headed home. The whole thing is very regrettable but the police accepted I had not meant to steal anything.”
Mr Whittington, who lives in Docklands, has been a parliamentary researcher for Tory MP John Baron and for his party's Social Justice Policy Group.
After his arrest on Monday he was questioned on suspicion of theft and held overnight.
A police source said: “The man had simply thought he could help himself to the champagne because it was near a free bar. He had apparently drunk one bottle and then decided to have another.”
A Conservative Party spokesman was unavailable for comment.
David Cameron caused embarrassment for the party earlier this week when he was photographed holding a glass of champagne at a conference event.
Reader views (4)
He thought he was an MP
- Joey, bromley england
If this had been someone stealing wine from tesco and saying they intended to pay, they would have been prosecuted. This person may face disciplinary action - big deal, anyone else would have a criminal record with their fingerprints and dna stored for life by the authorities. Still, crooks and thieves in political parties is nothing new, so lets open another bottle and have a jolly good time.
- Bob, London
I think we all really know what went on here....even so, the manager was a bit heavy-handed. As it was in the North, he might have been a Labour man!
And the police were over the top in keeping him in overnight, unless Whittington was shooting his drunken mouth off of course, which might not surprise us.
Let's not forget the type of Tory party Cameron leads.
Not many 27-year olds can afford to swill champers at 150 quid a bottle.
- David Short, Tunis, Tunisia
David Cameron caused embarrassment for the party earlier this week when he was photographed holding a glass of champagne at a conference event.
...another 'reaching' moment for socialist dirty tricks pre-election campaigning. What are they implying? What can they actually demonstrate? In the scheme of things it's a nothing moment. Do people expect him to drink water or tea at these events (See how quickly they'd call him a fake THEN! See how quickly the Mirror tried to use that elsewhere!)
I've heard of the religious right - never thought I'd hear of the religioously tea-total left too!
- Rogan, Irving
