‘Rife’ cocaine use reported in Parliament as crackdown launched
The speaker of the House of Commons has said he is calling in police to investigate reports that drug use is ‘‘rife’’ in the British Parliament – as Prime Minister Boris Johnson dressed up as a police officer to promote his tough new anti-drug strategy for the country.
A report in Britain’s Sunday Times said a dozen sites inside the Palace of Westminster, which includes the House of Lords and House of Commons, tested positive for traces of cocaine.
Areas of interest included the bathrooms nearest Johnson’s office and those of Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is in charge of domestic security.
Drug residue, the newspaper reported, was also found close to rooms used by the opposition Labour Party, as well as a sedate dining room in the House of Lords, and the exclusive, sometimes raucous Thames-side pub called the Strangers’ Bar.
The paper reported that cannabis was also ‘‘being used openly’’ within the vicinity.
Of 12 bathrooms tested for drugs with detection wipes, cocaine was reportedly found in 11 of the locations, including places that can be best accessed only by those with a designated parliamentary pass, including lawmakers and staffers, alongside clerks, librarians, security personnel, waiters and journalists. Different passes allow different levels of access to halls, bars, committee rooms and cubbyholes within the Victorian-age premises.
‘‘The accounts of drug misuse in parliament given to the Sunday Times are deeply concerning,’’ Lindsay Hoyle, House speaker, said yesterday. ‘‘I will be raising them as a priority with the Metropolitan Police next week.’’ The Metropolitan Police service did not immediately return a request for comment.
The report came just as Johnson was set to announce a 10-year plan to hold drug offenders responsible and combat crime in England and Wales.
Yesterday, he was pictured with police in the city of Liverpool while wearing a dark uniform and a black hat with ‘‘police’’ stitched in white across the front – an image that caused a stir on social media as #cocaine became a top Twitter trend in the United Kingdom.
In Britain, cocaine is a ‘‘Class A’’ drug, the most serious classification. Those found to be in possession of the substance face up to seven years in prison. Those supplying or producing the drug can face a life sentence.
Yet the Sunday Times reported that ‘‘there is a cocaine culture in Parliament’’ from well-known lawmakers to young staffers – on both sides of the political spectrum. A Washington Post reporter with a parliamentary pass walking the halls of the palace found at least one of the suspect bathrooms closed, but the others open for business. The doors of the stalls and toilets – called loos here – can be locked.