Lords face Westminster lavatory ban

London: Hundreds of lords have been banned from using the lavatory during heavy rainfall after Westminster’s creaking Victorian drainage system caused major flooding earlier this year.

Peers have been told that the facilities will be out of bounds and taps switched off during severe downpours as a “precaution” in parts of the parliamentary estate. The diktat comes from a committee of lords and applies to Millbank House, which houses almost 140 peers and hundreds more staff. The building’s basement floor was flooded with sewage on June 23 — the date of the EU referendum — after heavy rainfall and a high Thames tide caused chaos.

Minutes from an October 11 meeting of the Services Committee shows the plan to avoid future floods. “In the event of exceptional rainfall being forecast, toilets would not be used in order to minimise the amount of water or sewage entering the basement, and mains water tanks would be shut off,” it concludes. The serious flooding on the day of the EU referendum caused mayhem behind the scenes.

The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered the full extent of the damage, which saw power outages, office evacuations and buildings closed for days. The Palace of Westminster, which includes the House of Commons and Lords, was one of the worst affected buildings. Rainwater poured into the basement, triggering a power cut and causing fire alarms to malfunction.

The building’s historic fittings were also affected as water dripped from the ceiling in the House of Lords’ division lobbies, ruining the carpet In total, at least seven sites across Westminster were affected, including the Conservative campaign headquarters, with a Tory source joking: “We lost a Prime Minister and the lower ground floor on the same day.”

Officials now want to push ahead with a multibillion pound renovation plan that would see MPs and peers moved out of the building for works. A House of Lords spokesman said measures have been taken to reduce chances of further flooding, but added that the “limitations of London’s Victorian sewer system” mean future problems cannot be complete ruled out.