Peter Stringfellow insisted today that his nightclubs did not offer “sexual encounters” as he urged MPs to reject proposed stricter rules for lapdancing establishments.

Britain's best known nightclub owner said existing laws that gave councils and police enough power to restrict where new clubs featuring nude dancing could be opened.

Giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, he admitted that “not everywhere should have a lapdancing club”. But he said his two clubs in London’s West End were more rigorously controlled than any he had run since he became involved in discos in 1962. “This isn’t a Government problem. There are a significant minority of councillors who do not understand their powers,” he said.

A new licensing regime to be unveiled by the Government will see lapdancing clubs, which are currently treated the same way as pubs, subjected to the same tough rules as sex shops.

Mr Stringfellow, 68, who is originally from Sheffield, told the committee he objected to the phrase “lapdancing club”, which he described as a “derogatory term”. “My term is adult entertainment, or in my case, gentleman’s club,” he said.

Urging MPs not to introduce any more legislation, he recounted his earlier court battles to persuade Westminster Council his nightclubs should be allowed to include naked entertainment.

Mr Stringfellow said local authorities could include a condition on all licence application forms stipulating that nudity was not allowed. Then anyone wanting to open a lapdancing club would have to appeal and make their case in court, he told the committee.

“Not everywhere should have a lapdancing club - there are places that shouldn’t have a disco,” he said.

Mr Stringfellow - who also runs nightclubs in Paris and Dublin - rejected proposals to classify lapdancing clubs as “sex encounter establishments”.

“I’m not a sex encounter club and I don’t want anyone coming in my club thinking they’re going to get a sexual encounter,” he said. He added: “Sex encounter licences in the West End are £30,000 per licence. For what? Are you going to stick that on me? I don’t desire to be treated that way. My licences are correct and proper.”

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, launched a stinging attack last week on corporate high-flyers who entertain their clients at lapdancing clubs. She said: “If I were a business person and I were wanting to make the best impression on clients, who presumably are female as well as male, I do think it’s a bit bizarre that you would take them to a lapdancing club.”

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