MPs are demanding upgrades for the subsidised Parliamentary gym with claims it is too tatty and expensive to attract customers.
The exclusive facility on the Westminster estate has been hit with a laundry list of complaints, from a lack of support for politicians on slimming jabs to the fact it is not open 24 hours.
An inquiry by the cross-party Commons Administration Committee has been told that just 13 of 650 MPs have used the gym this year.
The site is operated by a charitable trust, but taxpayers make up any shortfall in funding and contributed £25,000 last year, as well as providing the space.
Witnesses including veterans’ minister Al Carns have insisted the £40-a-month fee – or £45 including towels – is too high.
Giving evidence to the committee earlier this month, Mr Carns said the gym did not have the ‘correct facilities or capabilities to match the standard and pressures of parliamentary life’.
The former soldier – often tipped as a future Labour leader – said he personally went ‘four or five days a week’, but the facilties were not ‘welcoming’ or ‘attractive’ with ‘decrepit’ showers.
‘The gym itself is in a basement—I am sure you will all have been there—and it is need of refreshment and repair,’ he told his colleagues.
‘There are facings missing, and in some cases the showers are way out of date. The changing facilities do not have hangers for your suits.
‘You cannot have and keep a locker; you have to take a locker. You have to lay your suit on the bench when you need to get into it, unless you hang it on your door, which usually bangs into three or four other people to your left and right.’
Mr Carns said because he was ‘quite tall’ he needed to ‘remove the panels in the roof’ in order to do pull-ups.
He argued that the gym should be providing services from ‘menopause advice and mental health all the way through to some heavy weights, big bars and CrossFit capabilities’
‘People look at us as leaders, whether we like it or not, and there is an element of us setting a standard by collectively taking care of ourselves,’ Mr Carns said.
‘It also helps us to operate more effectively as Members of Parliament or individuals in Parliament by taking care of our health and wellbeing.’
Mr Carns said: ‘The gym is open at 7 am and closes at night, yet most modern gyms have 24/7 access.
‘Can we have a look at facilitating that? It is an assurance issue, but there is something about having an open-access gym. If we need to put CCTV in there or whatever, that would be fantastic.’
Mr Carns also highlighted the costs as a reason why there was a barely 3 per cent usage rate among the 15,000 Parliamentary passholders – although he stressed it was not an issue for MPs earning over £90,000.
‘I will also just mention the affordability piece; £45 a month is way above normal gym rates in some cases outside, whether that be any of the big gym companies that provide 24/7 access, modern equipment and modern classes. I wonder whether that is right for our workforce,’ he said.
Jonathan Giles, chief executive of Jubilee Hall Trust, which operates the gym, also gave evidence for the inquiry into ‘wellbeing’ on the estate.
The committee was told that there are 560 members who are on a direct debit or an annual membership, and 22 casual users.
However, that was ‘not a level that allows the service to be self-sufficient’, and the gym had not broken even for the past seven years.
Mr Giles said that changing the gym’s status from a private contract to a ‘service’ would allow more funding of ‘wellness’ and classes.
‘When we write the budget, we try to show that the income that we are generating from memberships at the membership rate that we think we can sell it for covers the operational costs, including staff salaries, and what comes out of the bottom line,’ he said.
Labour MP Carolyn Harris asked about support for women going through the menopause – and also suggested that there could be tailored programmes for people who have been using slimming jabs.
‘I am a woman of a certain age and I am a Mounjaro user. When I am back home, I use the gym six times a week. I do not use the gym here,’ she said.
‘There are a lot of us in here who are on the journey of weight loss. Are you doing anything specifically about supporting people who are maybe taking weight loss jabs, but need that extra support, and encouraging them to use fitness as well as the jabs?’
Mr Giles said: ‘There is nothing currently at the Westminster Gym, but that is not to say there could not be.
‘It comes back to my point about making sure the gym is a service to Parliament and exploring all these things that would be a cost to implement—an investment to implement—with a trained, qualified person who can take people through a full journey, which might be 12 months as opposed to 20 weeks.
‘It is not going to generate a surplus; it is just going to make sure that people have the knowledge and expertise to continue on that journey while they are an employee of the House.’
A House of Commons spokesman said: ‘The Westminster Gym is run by an external provider, the Jubilee Hall Trust, and is used by all passholder groups – including journalists, contractors, civil servants, staff and Members – with use now at its highest level since 2020.
‘We encourage all passholders to make use of the gym’s facilities and continue to work closely with the provider to improve the offer. We always welcome feedback on how the service can be enhanced.’
The spokesman argued that the gym was not technically subsidised despite ‘covering some overhead costs, including any losses the supplier may incur from providing the service’.
A spokesman for the Administration Committee said: ‘The Administration Committee considers the services provided by the House of Commons Administration, making recommendations on how these are delivered.
‘This includes how the facilities which make up the parliamentary estate are managed.
‘As part of that work, the Committee is currently an inquiry into the health and wellbeing services provided to all passholders on the estate, including the gym.
‘The insights gained from recent evidence sessions will help inform the advice the Committee provides to the Commission and House Administration.’
