Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RACE FOR PM GOES TO POT
Leadsom follows Gove to become SIXTH frontrunner to admit drugs past
TOP Tories made right Charlies of themselves yesterday as two more candidates for No10 admitted they had taken illegal drugs.
Andrea Leadsom confessed to “smoking weed” while Michael Gove took cocaine several times.
Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt and Rory Stewart previously admitted drug use. Lib Dem Ed Davey said: “They might be historical but it’s like they’re all off their heads.”
THE race for Downing Street turned into high drama yesterday as the number of hopefuls admitting drug use rose to SIX.
Three have owned up to trying cannabis, two have used cocaine and one has smoked opium.
Cabinet bigwig Michael Gove, 51, yesterday revealed he took cocaine more than 20 years ago.
Hours later, former Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom, 56, spoke about “smoking weed” during her university days.
Rory Stewart, 46, had already apologised for smoking opium, while Jeremy Hunt, 52, has said he consumed a cannabis lassi – a milkshake – while backpacking.
Dominic Raab, 45, has admitted smoking cannabis as a student.
And when running to be Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, 54, admitted taking cocaine and cannabis in his student days.
Westminster colleagues were agog at the tally of admissions.
Lib Dem leadership hopeful Ed Davey said: “They might all be historical confessions but the way this Tory leadership is going it’s like they’re all off their heads.”
Ex-Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the Tory six seemed “desperate to tell us they’ve got as high as a kite at some point”. He added: “But they continue to back policies that send less fortunate folk to prison for the same thing. It’s disgusting.”
Mrs Leadsom said she had never taken cocaine or Class A drugs.
But she said: “Everyone is entitled to a private life before becoming an MP. I smoked weed at university and have never smoked it since.”
The cocaine revelations about Environment Secretary Mr Gove emerged in new biography A Man in a Hurry, by Owen Bennett. It describes how, during the 2016 Tory leadership contest, Mr Gove told advisers he had used the Class A drug while a journalist 20 years ago.
Mr Gove told a newspaper: “The book is correct. I did take drugs. It is something I deeply regret. Drugs damage lives. They are dangerous and it was a mistake. I took drugs
on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago.
“I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and think, ‘I wish I hadn’t done that’.
“I don’t believe that past mistakes disqualify you.”
Mr Gove, MP for Surrey Heath, said it would be up to his colleagues whether he should be leader, but said he did not “act with an eye” on going into politics when he was younger.
He added: “The question now is that people should look at my record as a politician and ask themselves, ‘Is this person we see ready to lead now?’”
Some MPs said his admission should not stop him being PM. Tory rival Mr Raab said: “I don’t see it barring him from this race in any way.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday said he had never taken drugs – but he was “unconcerned about Michael Gove’s past behaviour”.
But other MPs pushed for Mr Gove to campaign for reform and the potential decriminalisation of some drugs.
Tory former prisons minister Crispin Blunt said Mr Gove’s drug use “while illegal, was wholly unexceptional” – and he should have acknowledged the need for reform of the law.
Mr Blunt, chairman of the allparty parliamentary group for drug policy reform, added: “The time has come for all serious politicians to engage with the debate around these issues. Sadly, Michael has delivered a politically crafted and deeply unconvincing handwringing statement of regret for committing a victimless crime.
“He should have used the opportunity to join a vital and urgent policy debate.”
Green MP Caroline Lucas said it was “rank hypocrisy” to admit to “mistakes” while “backing policies that perpetuate harm”.
The admissions from Mr Gove and Mrs Leadsom focused fresh attention on other leadership candidates’ use of drugs. International Development Secretary Rory Stewart has already apologised for smoking opium at a wedding in Iran, while Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt consumed a cannabis lassi while travelling in India.
Former Brexit Secretary Mr Raab said he took cannabis as a student but had “never taken cocaine or any class A drugs”.
Ex-Tory PM David Cameron has said he smoked cannabis at Eton. In contrast, Theresa May has said the naughtiest thing she had ever done was “run through a field of wheat”.