Boris Johnson’s policing minister has admitted he would be “surprised” if people weren’t taking illegal substance in parliament, as the government prepares to announce a new crackdown on “lifestyle” drug use.
Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has said he will call in police over “deeply concerning” allegations of widespread drug use at Westminster.
Sir Lindsay said he wanted to see “full and effective enforcement of the law” after the Sunday Times reported that an investigation found evidence of cocaine in 11 out of 12 locations tested in parliament.
Policing minister Kit Malthouse said he would be “surprised” if there were not users of illegal drugs in parliament after the probe found traces of the class A substance in numerous lavatories.
“There are obviously several thousand people who work on the estate and I would be surprised if there weren’t some lifestyle users of drugs amongst them,” said the Home Office minister.
It comes as the government unveils a £700m plan to tackle problem drug use – including moves which would see middle-class “lifestyle” drug offenders have their passports and driving licences taken away.
Asked if some of his own colleagues could be hit by proposals to remove the passports and driving licences of offenders, Mr Malthouse told Sky News: “I hope not.”
Mr Malthouse said Britain has “an awful lots of lifestyle users of cocaine … who are driving much of the violence and degradation” – pointing to plans to bring forward legislation next year aimed at tackling middle-class drug use.
He told LBC: “Where we want to get to is a situation that when the police are enforcing on drugs, they are as likely to do an operation outside Westminster … as they are outside Tottenham Hale or anywhere else.”
Mr Malthouse told the radio station he had never been to a dinner party where someone took drugs. “I would have reported it,” he said.
Mr Johnson said the government’s 10-year drugs strategy – due to be published on Monday – will see more “problem users” placed into rehab as part of a plan to spend £700m on recovery over the next three years.
Speaking to broadcasters in Merseyside, the prime minister said: “What’s new is that we are putting a lot more investment, number one, into tackling the 300,000 problem drug users who drive about half the acquisitive crime and about half of the homicides in this country.”
He added: “You can’t simply arrest them time after time and put them back into prison again and again – you’ve got to do rehab as well.”
But Mr Johnson said the government is planning to “come down hard” on those pushing unlawful narcotics – part of a pledge to break up 2,000 county lines drugs gangs.
“You’ve got to be tougher on the county lines gangs, you’ve got to be tougher on the criminals who are doing it, but you’ve also got to make sure that you find those 300,000 people and you help them,” he said.
Asked about his claim that passports could be taken away from middle-class drug users – made in The Sun on Sunday – Mr Johnson said: “We are looking at doing things to tackle those so-called lifestyle drug users who don’t think they are part of the problem.”
Sir Keir Starmer claimed that cuts to criminal justice spending over the last decade are behind many of the problems the government is seeking to address with its latest drugs strategy.
“I want the prime minister to take responsibility for the money that’s been taken out of criminal justice in the last 10 years,” said the Labour leader.
