Mirfield licensee defends his pub's Queen Elizabeth II funeral plans

The pub, on Huddersfield Road, had advertised on its official Facebook page that they would be offering afternoon tea, for £25 per person, on the day of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday September 19.

However, the advert should have read ‘Tea for Two, £25’.

And whilst the pub’s landlord, Alan Ingle, admitted it was a “misprint,” he was still inundated with a flurry of negative responses on social media.

One Facebook user commented: “Disgusting and disgraceful. Shame on you.”

Another remarked: “Wrong call completely.”

Reacting to the online criticism, Mr Ingle said: “It was to celebrate the life of the Queen. It was just a misprint. We accidentally put ‘pp’ but it should have been ‘tea for two’.

“It got picked up and I got called a profiteering x, y and z.

“It has slightly disappointed me. The Pear Tree is a local pub with a good regular crowd of aged 60-plus, as well as diners and people passing by and a lot of my customers said we’d like to watch the funeral here rather than watch it at home.

“There was no entry fee. You don’t even have to have tea and biscuits. We do food which is served from 12pm to 7pm on a Bank Holiday. It was just the option of adding on to our menu; a tea-for-two at a discounted price.

“It’s a celebration of someone’s life. It’s what we do for any funeral - go back somewhere to get together and chat.”

Mr Ingle, 62, who has been in the pub industry since 1989, is now unsure whether he will be going ahead with the plans on Monday.

He said: “I’m not a gentleman who likes upsetting people. I have been here 12 years and I have had a lot of good support.

“I’m a positive person and, unfortunately, when you get negative remarks like that, it makes you not want to go ahead and do it.

“It's not something I drummed up to get extra trade. All I wanted to do was let people know we were doing something different.”