EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Corporate Giant Backs Down Over Plans to Kill Off Farage’s Fave Pub

U.S. corporate giant General Motors has backed down today, in a statement seen by Breitbart London, that claims it will alter its bid to build luxury apartments that would otherwise see the closure of the Westminster Arms pub in London.

The pub, famously known as UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s famous London boozer, was placed in the line of fire after GM Investment Trustees Ltd – an arm of the recent government bailout recipient General Motors – put in an application to Westminster Council to build nine luxury apartments in the adjoining building.

This would have forced the Westminster Arms’ wine bar to close, as it is contained in the basement of said building.

But a Breitbart London-led campaign to Save The Westminster Arms, spearheaded by this site’s own editor-in-chief, appears to have won the day, with GM Investment Trustees revising their planning application.

In statement, the group said:

For your information, further to discussions with Shepherd Neame Ltd, we have now submitted a revised scheme to Westminster City Council.

The amendments sought within the revised scheme can be summarised as follows:

• The retention of the wine bar at lower ground floor level;
• The extension of the wine bar at lower ground floor level to the rear by 8sqm;
• Reduction in residential units from 9 units to 8;
• Revised unit mix to comprise 6 x 2 bedroom, 2 x 3 bedroom;
• The reconfiguration of unit layout at ground and first floor levels, including the introduction of a 3 bedroom duplex unit at ground and first floor levels, with living space provided at ground floor level and bedroom accommodation at first floor level; and
• Noise attenuation measures between the wine bar and residential accommodation at ground floor level.

On the basis of the revised scheme, which retains the wine bar at basement level, the proposed development is no longer considered to pose a threat to the viability of the Westminster Arms.

The campaign was supported by Mr Farage himself, who appeared at the Westminster Arms on the morning of the campaign launch, alongside the pub’s landlord and Breitbart London’s Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam.

The campaign, which attracted hundreds of objections to the Westminster Council website, was supported by the Campaign for Real Ale, and the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety.

There are still concerns however, that if the building next to the pub is converted to apartments, then drinking outside the pub would be disallowed.