How a Brit MP participated in champagne drinking contest abroad, and passed out

London, Feb. 22 (ANI): Two British MPs, involved in a champagne drinking contest while on official business in Paris, drank so much that one needed to undergo medical treatment.

At the Council of Europe reception, Labour MP Bill Etherington drank so much that he passed out and was ill while seated at an expenses paid dinner for delegates from 20 countries, the Telegraph reports.

Geraldine Smith, the other MP involved in the contest, revealed how she poured her drinks into a flowerpot.

According to a book by Paul Flynn, a backbench Labour MP for Newport, the drinking competition left Etherington completely inebriated, as he had not noticed the other MP was "cheating" by not drinking.

"One had consumed a near lethal quality of alcohol. He was placed on the top table where he babbled incoherently. The reputation of the British is still damaged by this incident - and it happened a decade ago," Flynn wrote in his book 'The Unusual Suspect.'

"It was not the idiotic competition or the wild inebriation that left an indelible memory. It was the display of projectile vomiting across the top table. The MP then slipped into unconsciousness."

"A doctor was called. The patient was spread eagled on a couch in an adjoining room with electrodes attached to his chest. To this day, he says he has no memory of the incident," he added.

Smith, the MP from Morecambe, said she refused to take part in the competition and poured her drinks away.

"It is not the first time men have tried to ply women with a drink, but I won't have a drink if I don't want to. I did pour drinks away, but it is not unusual for that to happen in certain social situations," she said. (ANI)