York MP Rachael Maskell hits out at stag and hen firm boss

Rachael Maskell made the comments after Matt Mavir, managing director of Britain’s leading stag and hen firm Last Night of Freedom, hit out at the York Central MP for accusing stags and hens of causing “devastation” to the city.

A Freedom of Information Request submitted by the firm to North Yorkshire Police shows that, according to police logs, just seven police incidents have been linked to York stag or hen parties since the start of 2021.

Mr Mavir said: “These figures show that claim to be utter nonsense.

“On any given weekend in any major British city, police will deal with dozens of incidents. In York, over the last 20 months, there have been just seven involving stags and hens - to imply they are the root cause of any ongoing problems in York is completely unfounded.”

However Ms Maskell said that if Mr Mavir lived anywhere near York, he would clearly hear the concerns that residents have across the city with the prevalence of groups drinking in the city, including those here for stag and hen weekends.

Rachael Maskell has spoken out about hen and stag parties in York

She said: "Instead, he is wanting to profit out of our misery. Not only do residents continuously share their experiences, but visitors too. While the bars may be throbbing and party goers having a good time, I hear relentless stories of how people witness anti-social behaviour, how York smells of urine the following morning and most importantly how women and other people in York feel unsafe by people’s conduct towards them.

“With the sharp rise in ‘airbnb’ holiday-lets across the city, residents report how city centre drunken behaviour is then taken into their neighbourhoods.

"It is also impacting on businesses as people are no longer going into York, and parents consistently tell me that they will not expose their children to such scenes whereas visitors tell me they will not be back until something is done.

“The night time economy is running out of control, with York being marked out as the UK’s capital of hen parties.

"We need to put it to a stop, place the needs of residents first and return our city to the people of York.”

The figures revealed that a range of alleged offences – ranging from bike theft to assault and sexual offences – were linked to stags and hens. However, North Yorkshire Police didn’t disclose if stags or hens were the suspects or victims.

And despite York recently being crowned as one of Europe’s most popular hen party hotspots – with more flocking there than Las Vegas and Barcelona – there were almost as many stag and hen police incidents in Scarborough and leafy Hambleton and Richmondshire.

Mr Mavir said: “Hopefully these figures show stags and hens aren’t a menace, but something almost everybody takes part in at least once in their lifetime.

“Almost all parties just want to bond with their friends, and in doing so, bring substantial economic benefits to the cities they visit whilst propping up hundreds of jobs.

“Across Britain, many of these incidents were either relatively minor or involved breaches of covid laws that no longer exist,” said the boss of the Gateshead firm.