Tories under fire for drug event response

Holyrood minister hits out at ‘high-handed arrogance’

Scotland’s public health minister said the Home Office is “beneath contempt” after a UK Government minister rejected calls to work together at a summit to reduce drug deaths.

Kit Malthouse, Minister for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service, confirmed in a letter he was “unable to commit” to taking part in such a meeting.

Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick received the note shortly after updating Holyrood on the work of a new task force the Scottish Government has set up to deal with the problem.

The Scottish Government took action after drug deaths reached a record high of 1,187 in 2018, up 27% on the previous year.

With the task force to meet for the first time on September 17, Mr FitzPatrick said he would “very much welcome a commitment from the UK Government to work with us”.

In his letter, Mr Malthouse said: “On your request for UK Government ministerial attendance at the proposed summit in Glasgow, unfortunately I am unable to commit to this. However, I wish you well with the event.”

He added: “The home secretary and I are nevertheless keen to ensure that the UK Government continues to work together with the Scottish Government at official level to address the challenge of drugs and drug harms.”

Mr Fitzpatrick hit out at the “high-handed arrogance with which the Tories have dismissed all of our requests”.

He added: “The very fact that they deliberately delayed issuing this response until just minutes after MSPs had discussed this matter in Holyrood adds insult to injury.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged an additional £20 million to tackle the scourge of drug abuse in her Programme for Government on Tuesday.

The Home Office has already blocked attempts to set up a safe drugs consumption room in Glasgow, with Mr Malthouse saying: “It is important for me to be clear from the outset that the UK Government has no plans to change the law to allow the establishment of such facilities.”

Alison Thewliss, the SNP MP for Glasgow Central, also blasted the response of the UK Government and Home Secretary Priti Patel.

She said: “I’m utterly furious that the home secretary doesn’t even see fit to respond herself, never mind deign to attend a crucial drugs summit in Glasgow.”

It seems unbelievable that the UK Government would have no apparent interest in helping tackle Scotland’s drug deaths crisis. Priti Patel, the home secretary in Westminster, has twice been invited to the summit arranged in Glasgow to examine the issue and begin to make a real difference.

She did not respond, passing the matter instead to Kit Malthouse, minister of state for crime, policing and the fire service.

Moments after Scotland’s public health minister Joe FitzPatrick updated Holyrood on the new taskforce set up by the Scottish Government, he received a letter from Mr Malthouse.

Not only did it fail to commit to any UK Government attendance at the summit, it did so in the most dismissive terms possible.

“I wish you well with the event” is a phrase more in keeping with turning down an invitation to a village fete, than a genuine attempt to save lives.

Mr Malthouse has, however, made it clear the Scottish Government will not have a free hand in deciding drugs laws – a reserved matter – by ruling out safe consumption rooms.

If real progress is to be made in reducing the scourge of drugs in Scotland, it will take all parties working together – the dismissive attitude from Westminster is complacent and dangerous and must be revised.