ERIC Joyce has denied he is an alcoholic and claimed he wasn't drunk at the time of an alleged brawl in a parliamentary bar in the House of Commons.
The MP, pictured below, wrote in a message on his website that he had consumed "by any standards a very modest amount of alcohol" and criticised a decision by Commons authorities to bar him from buying alcohol anywhere in the Palace of Westminster.
In the blog, Joyce, 52, also defended his "diligence" in his work as the independent constituency MP for Falkirk, amid calls for him to stand down from the post.
It is the second time the former soldier has been involved in incidents in parliamentary bars. Last year, he was convicted of assault in the Strangers Bar in the House of Commons and later resigned from the Labour Party.
He was fined and given a three-month pub and bar ban for punching and head-butting fellow MPs.
Joyce was arrested again on Thursday on suspicion of assault after an altercation at the Sports and Social Club bar, apparently over taking a glass outside to a smoking area.
He was released on bail the following evening. He has not been charged over the incident.
However, a police inquiry is continuing.
In a posting on his website, the MP said: "I am not, and never have been, an alcoholic."
He added: "I did, briefly, go through an unhappy period where I drank heavily. That ended 12 months ago, overnight, with the dreadful incident in Strangers [Bar] for which I still feel genuine remorse in respect of those affected.
"I have spent the past 12 months making a concerted effort to address the causes of that incident. I do not go into bars, nor drink in my office. Nor do I inject alcohol right into my eyeballs while crying.
"I was not drunk last Thursday. I had consumed, by any standards, a very modest amount of alcohol."
He added: "I visited the Sports and Social Bar because it had been just over one year since last year's terrible incident elsewhere.
"In retrospect, this does not seem to have been a good call. I will clearly not be doing so again and it takes neither the brains of an archbishop nor the edict of an official to achieve that end."
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