'I'm not, and never have been, an alcoholic': Disgraced MP Eric Joyce hits back at 'false claims' after arrest over second Commons bar brawl Denied he is an alcoholic after the brawl at the Sports and Social Club bar Said that he drank a 'moderate' amount of alcohol on the night Bailed to return to a London police station at a later date in March Arrested in custody on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm PM wants 'recall' powers that would allow voters to oust misbehaving MPs Mr Joyce now banned from buying alcohol in Palace of Westminster Eric Joyce has denied being an alcoholic following his second arrest in the House of Commons The MP arrested after an alleged brawl in a parliamentary bar denied he was drunk at the time and hit out at false claims he was an alcoholic. Eric Joyce insisted he had consumed "by any standards a very modest amount" and criticised a decision by officials to bar him from drinking at Parliament. And, amid calls for him to quit after the second such incident in recent years, he defended his "diligence" as the independent constituency MP for Falkirk. Mr Joyce resigned from the Labour Party last year after being fined and handed a three-month pub and bar ban for punching and head-butting fellow MPs. He was arrested on suspicion of assault on Thursday after an altercation at the Sports and Social Club apparently over taking a glass out to a smoking area. The former soldier was released on bail yesterday. In a posting on his website, the MP said he was limited in his responses to reports about him as he wanted to 'respect the police inquiry'. But in a series of points he sought to correct what he said were false reports about his health and general behaviour. 'I am not, and never have been, an alcoholic,' he wrote. I did, briefly, go through an unhappy period where I drank heavily. That ended 12 months ago, overnight, with the dreadful incident in Strangers for which I still feel genuine remorse in respect of those affected. Eric Joyce is restrained and handcuffed before being taken away by police 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. I was examined by a nurse after being arrested. I was pronounced fit for interview. I did not need to 'sleep it off'.' Mr Joyce also denied claims printed in The Daily Telegraph that there was an 'anti-Tory dimension' to his behaviour on Thursday prior to his arrest and cited good cross-party relationships. Police said the MP, who was initially arrested on suspicion of assault, was further arrested while in custody on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm Arrest: The 52-year-old former soldier was arrested last February over a brawl at the nearby Strangers¿ bar in Parliament where he headbutted Tory MP Stuart Andrew Eric Joyce being escorted by police away from the bar in Parliament Conservative MPs, many of whom I regard as personal friends, have gone out of their way to be kind and helpful throughout the last year. Labour Party colleagues have been enormously supportive. MPs of all other parties, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish, have too,' he wrote. The Falkirk MP also addressed a number of personal issues which have been reported on and refuted they were a factor in his actions. He said: 'I separated from my wife seven years ago. We are on excellent terms. I am not broken, tortured, lonely or tormented. Mr Joyce has rubbished suggestions that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress by branding them 'ridiculous'. In response to the alcohol ban imposed on him, Mr Joyce said, '[it] appears entirely designed for public consumption and fuels misreports of my own alcohol consumption on the evening in question and even my general behaviour within the palace precincts.' He also revealed that his visit to the Sports and Social Bar on Thursday was to mark more than a year since he was previously arrested. 'In retrospect, this does not seem to have been a good call,' he said while also stating that he would never do so again, 'it takes neither the brains of an archbishop nor the edict of an official to achieve that end.' Mr Joyce claimed the reason for his original arrest in the Sports and Social Bar was 'dropped' after 'it became clear I was uninvolved in an incident the police had assumed I had been involved in'. According to the MP, he was then re-arrested the following morning after new complaints were brought by police officers. In conclusion he expressed thanks to colleagues, friends and members of the public who had sent supportive messages to him. VIDEO Eyewitness describes the scene in the Commons bar