Brown calls for Holyrood powers on crisis

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has backed calls for Holyrood to have more powers over drugs.

The ex-labour leader said he was in favour of devolving powers to the Scottish Parliament to “deal with these issues”.

He spoke out about the “tragic figure” of Scotland’s drugs death toll after a record 1,339 fatalities were recorded in 2020.

But he hit out at both the SNP and the Tories, accusing them of playing a “blame game” about who was responsible for the problem.

While Conservatives have challenged the Scottish Government to do more to address the drugs problem, SNP ministers have complained that they do not have powers needed to set up drugs consumption rooms.

Mr Brown said: “I’m in favour of making the powers available to the Scottish Parliament to deal with these issues.”

However, speaking at an event organised by the Our Scottish Future think tank that he founded to “build the positive, progressive and patriotic case for a better Scotland in a reformed UK”, he also stressed the need for greater co-operation.

“The borders do not matter to the drugs traders so we have got to find a way of working together,” Mr Brown said.

He insisted: “Whatever happens you have got to co-operate on drugs, because the drugs come from all sorts of parts of the world where you need police forces to work together to control them.”

His comments came after a speech in which he spoke about the need for co-operation across the UK “to make the best of our country and make nationalism, that divides the worlds into warring tribes, a relic of the past”.