Sniffer dogs could be deployed across the parliamentary estate under plans for a drugs crackdown by the Commons authorities.
The Speaker has promised to call in the police amid growing evidence of cocaine and other illegal substances being used in parliament. Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he would investigate Westminster’s drug culture after traces of cocaine were detected in a number of places accessible only to people with parliamentary passes.
Separately, the Conservative MP Charles Walker, who chairs the administration committee, said that the issue would be discussed by the House of Commons Commission next week. “The House of Commons has a long history of using sniffer dogs to detect explosives,” he said. “It may be that we now need to broaden the range of sniffer dogs . . . to include those which can detect drugs.”
Commons officials received reports last month that cannabis could be smelt in the open space between Portcullis House and 1 Parliament Street. It came after it was revealed that two drug dealers were arrested and 13 people were detained for drugs possession on or around the parliamentary estate in the space of a year.
Now many sources have described casual cocaine use by a group of MPs and detection wipes found evidence of the class A drug in 11 out of 12 locations tested in the building, including places accessible only to those with parliamentary passes.
The prime minister is preparing to launch a fresh crackdown on middle-class cocaine users to shift any perception that some people can take class A drugs without consequences. Boris Johnson is understood to be drawing up plans to “make an example” out of high-profile middle-class offenders. The maximum sentence for any individual caught in possession is seven years in prison.
Evidence of cocaine was identified in the lavatories nearest the private offices of Johnson and the home secretary. It was also discovered in the disabled bathroom on the shadow cabinet corridor in Norman Shaw North and in the accessible lavatory on the oak-panelled committee corridor next to the office of Nick Thomas-Symonds, the former shadow home secretary.
The tests were all carried out on the same evening using cocaine detection wipes, which are more often used in nightclubs and bars to identify and minimise onsite drugs consumption. The white wipes turn blue if cocaine is present.
Hoyle, who was a Labour MP before he was elected Speaker, has long feared that parliament has a drug problem. In the autumn of 2019, when he was in the running to replace John Bercow, he said: “It’s not just drink we’ve got to catch out, there is a drug problem.”
Now scores of MPs, peers, special advisers, researchers and staff have shared their stories of drug abuse in Britain’s corridors of power on condition of anonymity. “I have seen an MP openly snorting cocaine at a party,” one source said. “There were journalists present and I warned them that what they were doing was extremely dangerous and they could be exposed but they seemed to get off on the power trip.”
Another source said: “MPs tend to be more careful than staff and will go back to their office to do it rather than doing it in any of the public spaces, but I have heard of one staffer who walked in on their MP doing a late-night line at their desk.”
Several MPs on both sides of the political divide are alleged to have taken class A drugs at house parties in front of colleagues. The same names were identified by multiple sources.
“There is a cocaine culture in parliament,” a Westminster veteran said. “Some people are at it all the time and are totally blasé. Others dabble. Some are household names, some are ambitious young MPs and officials, but all of them risk throwing away their careers. They think they are untouchable, protected by their friends in the bubble. It’s shocking but also sad. Lots of them need help.”
A former MP is alleged to have put his drug dealer on the parliamentary payroll, claiming that the man was a member of his staff as a way of paying him for the drugs. That same former MP is rumoured to have dealt drugs himself.
It is understood that at least one parliamentary aide has been sacked in the past year after it was discovered that they were taking cocaine. Another aide was “managed out” of their job after their drug abuse was exposed. “They were told clearly that unless they sought help for their addiction and left their post of their own accord the police would have to be involved.”
Priti Patel, the home secretary, said there was “no place in our society for drugs and certainly not in our parliament”. She added: “Those who have the privilege to work at the heart of our democracy who are involved in drug use or distribution are utterly divorced from the heartless pain and suffering of the drug trade they are fuelling.”
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, demanded a full inquiry. “When thousands of young people are in prison for their drug use, it is outrageous that people are doing cocaine in parliament with impunity,” he said. “Government ministers cannot talk tough about illegal drugs while turning a blind eye to their mates.
“We cannot allow a culture to persist where powerful people think they can do this, and we need effective action from the government to undermine the criminal gangs who profit from selling harm.”
Jenny Symmons, who chairs the GMB union branch for members’ staff, said: “Parliament is a microcosm of the country so of course drugs will be a problem, but the working culture of late nights and short deadlines can create a pressure that feels unmanageable. Support must be available for those who have turned to drugs and we must continue to improve working conditions for staff.”
Figures released by the Metropolitan Police under freedom of information laws show that there were 17 drug crimes in or near the parliamentary buildings in the past year. Police investigated 38 drug offences on the estate between 2015 and 2018.
Parliament has 19,000 pass-holders who can enter the estate without security checks. However, only about 3,000 have been routinely attending the site since the first lockdown. All other visitors must have their bags searched and be subject to a metal detector.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader, said: “The palace of Westminster ought to be the bastion of lawfulness. There are a lot of police on the parliamentary estate who should enforce the law using all the tools at their disposal to stop drug dealing and drug abuse within the palace.”
A Commons spokesman said: “Parliament takes the issue of substance misuse very seriously, and should drug use be identified in parliament, appropriate action would be taken. Any allegation of criminal behaviour would be a matter for the Metropolitan Police.”
This story in conjunction with the one about [passports being removed from drug criminals](https://redd.it/r9crj4) causes me much amusement.
If everyone, at all levels of society, want to get off their faces, doesn’t that tell us that rather than the people being wrong, the laws are.
Queue Michael Gove sneaking treats into people’s pockets as they enter the chamber
I feel like this is another case of “could” doing a lot of work. And the police “can’t” (shouldn’t, see Damian Green for a case where they did, and the Speaker wasn’t pleased) search MPs offices without permission, so they’ll just do it there.
Sniffer dogs are being used mostly to remove responsibility for racial bias in policing. Sniffer dogs effectiveness is not much better than a guess and they react on signal from the handler if he thinks a person may be in a possession and it gives them cover – “it was a dog, not me”.
What I am trying to say is that it has two implications – they will be able to say – look we have sniffer dogs and they didn’t find anything, so MPs are totally not using drugs!
or which is much more sinister – they will be able to remove any MP or member of staff by mere suspicion of carrying drugs and – perhaps – even planting them on undesirable person.
What a joke. If they actually wanted to stop drug use in Westminster they would use random blood/hair testing.
Next move is they decriminalize cocaine in parliament…
That “Could” is working harder than any Tory MP at being an MP.
They’re talking about removing passports from drug users but this will be like having Xmas parties during lockdown – fine for Tories; bad for the serfs.
They just demonstrated the lengths they’re willing to go to in order to protect their own from consequences & accountability in the sleaze drama…so frankly this is a bit of a joke.
Nor frankly do I particularly care as long as it doesn’t interfere with them doing their job. Issue there being that seems to be problematic to start with…coke or not.
100% of all politicians suddenly carrying sausages in their pockets at all times.
Ahhh, more spectator sports as a diversion from authoritarianism and sleaze.
Cute, but no.
Parliament has had a major problem with finding evidence of drug use inside the building along with MPs accessing porn on the Internet. As if having an on site pub wasn’t good enough to stop them doing work. MPs need to start getting treated like normal people and be barred from doing these things unless they want to change laws.
It’s all well and good making this threat, but given police were on the door of Downing Street when they had a Christmas party in breach of Covid restrictions, why would I possibly have any confidence that they’d do anything about it?
I had to double-check this wasn’t a news thump article
This absolutely won’t happen. This whole country has a massive gear problem and posh boys and folk in London have it much more so.
Heck didn’t half the parliment admit to smoking weed last year, would bet coke use is much more rife. Absolutely no reason anyone in parliment is gonna risk a big chunk of MPs and presumably many more civil servants.
Surely the best thing for any opposition to do now is to publicly screen all their MPs and put pressure on tories knowing that some of them will fail.
Assuming they’re all clean anyway which seems to be a lot to ask for
I heard a rumour Jacob Rees-Mogg hoovers the stuff up
That’s just not going to happen though, is it. Charlie enthusiast and over sided schoolboy Michael Gove won’t allow dogs anywhere near the seat of power, or even the footstool of control.
Can sniffer dogs detect cocaine?
Surely random spot tests that they administer road side would be better?
We’re being ruled by a bunch of coked up nutcases?
Never?!?
Why bother with dogs, do what they do in the military.. random drug tests.Test positive and your escorted off the promises no ifs and butt’s then run a by-election. Once they know their eighty grand salary is at stake they’ll soon fall into line.
Nothing would happen if it did sniff someone out. They should have bullshit sniffer dogs, in parliament, who sit near someone who is telling lies.
Ah, another job for the procurer of wild beasts for parliament as seen in that documentary Brass Eye.
Dog finds drugs, drugs get confiscated.. No one knew who it belongs to, the end.
… Personally if they want to go this route, I would prefer mandatory drug testing in parliament, name & shame, suspend.
Let it be known after years of turning a blind eye, that drug use is still a strict nono, starting with Parliament.
Either that or legalise it, tax & join the rest of the world to modernise our society, in a country where Alcohol is a perfectly accepted/encouraged norm I see no reason for lesser drugs to be any different.
27 comments
Article text:
Sniffer dogs could be deployed across the parliamentary estate under plans for a drugs crackdown by the Commons authorities.
The Speaker has promised to call in the police amid growing evidence of cocaine and other illegal substances being used in parliament. Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he would investigate Westminster’s drug culture after traces of cocaine were detected in a number of places accessible only to people with parliamentary passes.
Separately, the Conservative MP Charles Walker, who chairs the administration committee, said that the issue would be discussed by the House of Commons Commission next week. “The House of Commons has a long history of using sniffer dogs to detect explosives,” he said. “It may be that we now need to broaden the range of sniffer dogs . . . to include those which can detect drugs.”
Commons officials received reports last month that cannabis could be smelt in the open space between Portcullis House and 1 Parliament Street. It came after it was revealed that two drug dealers were arrested and 13 people were detained for drugs possession on or around the parliamentary estate in the space of a year.
Now many sources have described casual cocaine use by a group of MPs and detection wipes found evidence of the class A drug in 11 out of 12 locations tested in the building, including places accessible only to those with parliamentary passes.
The prime minister is preparing to launch a fresh crackdown on middle-class cocaine users to shift any perception that some people can take class A drugs without consequences. Boris Johnson is understood to be drawing up plans to “make an example” out of high-profile middle-class offenders. The maximum sentence for any individual caught in possession is seven years in prison.
Evidence of cocaine was identified in the lavatories nearest the private offices of Johnson and the home secretary. It was also discovered in the disabled bathroom on the shadow cabinet corridor in Norman Shaw North and in the accessible lavatory on the oak-panelled committee corridor next to the office of Nick Thomas-Symonds, the former shadow home secretary.
The tests were all carried out on the same evening using cocaine detection wipes, which are more often used in nightclubs and bars to identify and minimise onsite drugs consumption. The white wipes turn blue if cocaine is present.
Hoyle, who was a Labour MP before he was elected Speaker, has long feared that parliament has a drug problem. In the autumn of 2019, when he was in the running to replace John Bercow, he said: “It’s not just drink we’ve got to catch out, there is a drug problem.”
Now scores of MPs, peers, special advisers, researchers and staff have shared their stories of drug abuse in Britain’s corridors of power on condition of anonymity. “I have seen an MP openly snorting cocaine at a party,” one source said. “There were journalists present and I warned them that what they were doing was extremely dangerous and they could be exposed but they seemed to get off on the power trip.”
Another source said: “MPs tend to be more careful than staff and will go back to their office to do it rather than doing it in any of the public spaces, but I have heard of one staffer who walked in on their MP doing a late-night line at their desk.”
Several MPs on both sides of the political divide are alleged to have taken class A drugs at house parties in front of colleagues. The same names were identified by multiple sources.
“There is a cocaine culture in parliament,” a Westminster veteran said. “Some people are at it all the time and are totally blasé. Others dabble. Some are household names, some are ambitious young MPs and officials, but all of them risk throwing away their careers. They think they are untouchable, protected by their friends in the bubble. It’s shocking but also sad. Lots of them need help.”
A former MP is alleged to have put his drug dealer on the parliamentary payroll, claiming that the man was a member of his staff as a way of paying him for the drugs. That same former MP is rumoured to have dealt drugs himself.
It is understood that at least one parliamentary aide has been sacked in the past year after it was discovered that they were taking cocaine. Another aide was “managed out” of their job after their drug abuse was exposed. “They were told clearly that unless they sought help for their addiction and left their post of their own accord the police would have to be involved.”
Priti Patel, the home secretary, said there was “no place in our society for drugs and certainly not in our parliament”. She added: “Those who have the privilege to work at the heart of our democracy who are involved in drug use or distribution are utterly divorced from the heartless pain and suffering of the drug trade they are fuelling.”
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, demanded a full inquiry. “When thousands of young people are in prison for their drug use, it is outrageous that people are doing cocaine in parliament with impunity,” he said. “Government ministers cannot talk tough about illegal drugs while turning a blind eye to their mates.
“We cannot allow a culture to persist where powerful people think they can do this, and we need effective action from the government to undermine the criminal gangs who profit from selling harm.”
Jenny Symmons, who chairs the GMB union branch for members’ staff, said: “Parliament is a microcosm of the country so of course drugs will be a problem, but the working culture of late nights and short deadlines can create a pressure that feels unmanageable. Support must be available for those who have turned to drugs and we must continue to improve working conditions for staff.”
Figures released by the Metropolitan Police under freedom of information laws show that there were 17 drug crimes in or near the parliamentary buildings in the past year. Police investigated 38 drug offences on the estate between 2015 and 2018.
Parliament has 19,000 pass-holders who can enter the estate without security checks. However, only about 3,000 have been routinely attending the site since the first lockdown. All other visitors must have their bags searched and be subject to a metal detector.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Commons leader, said: “The palace of Westminster ought to be the bastion of lawfulness. There are a lot of police on the parliamentary estate who should enforce the law using all the tools at their disposal to stop drug dealing and drug abuse within the palace.”
A Commons spokesman said: “Parliament takes the issue of substance misuse very seriously, and should drug use be identified in parliament, appropriate action would be taken. Any allegation of criminal behaviour would be a matter for the Metropolitan Police.”
This story in conjunction with the one about [passports being removed from drug criminals](https://redd.it/r9crj4) causes me much amusement.
If everyone, at all levels of society, want to get off their faces, doesn’t that tell us that rather than the people being wrong, the laws are.
Queue Michael Gove sneaking treats into people’s pockets as they enter the chamber
I feel like this is another case of “could” doing a lot of work. And the police “can’t” (shouldn’t, see Damian Green for a case where they did, and the Speaker wasn’t pleased) search MPs offices without permission, so they’ll just do it there.
Sniffer dogs are being used mostly to remove responsibility for racial bias in policing. Sniffer dogs effectiveness is not much better than a guess and they react on signal from the handler if he thinks a person may be in a possession and it gives them cover – “it was a dog, not me”.
What I am trying to say is that it has two implications – they will be able to say – look we have sniffer dogs and they didn’t find anything, so MPs are totally not using drugs!
or which is much more sinister – they will be able to remove any MP or member of staff by mere suspicion of carrying drugs and – perhaps – even planting them on undesirable person.
What a joke. If they actually wanted to stop drug use in Westminster they would use random blood/hair testing.
I really want to see this happen. [There’s lots of reports of high drug usage in parliament.](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/13/police-record-17-drugs-crimes-at-palace-of-westminster-in-a-year). [Let’s sniff it out](https://www.vice.com/en/article/43jp9d/we-found-evidence-of-cocaine-use-in-uk-government-buildings)
Next move is they decriminalize cocaine in parliament…
That “Could” is working harder than any Tory MP at being an MP.
They’re talking about removing passports from drug users but this will be like having Xmas parties during lockdown – fine for Tories; bad for the serfs.
They just demonstrated the lengths they’re willing to go to in order to protect their own from consequences & accountability in the sleaze drama…so frankly this is a bit of a joke.
Nor frankly do I particularly care as long as it doesn’t interfere with them doing their job. Issue there being that seems to be problematic to start with…coke or not.
100% of all politicians suddenly carrying sausages in their pockets at all times.
Ahhh, more spectator sports as a diversion from authoritarianism and sleaze.
Cute, but no.
Parliament has had a major problem with finding evidence of drug use inside the building along with MPs accessing porn on the Internet. As if having an on site pub wasn’t good enough to stop them doing work. MPs need to start getting treated like normal people and be barred from doing these things unless they want to change laws.
It’s all well and good making this threat, but given police were on the door of Downing Street when they had a Christmas party in breach of Covid restrictions, why would I possibly have any confidence that they’d do anything about it?
I had to double-check this wasn’t a news thump article
This absolutely won’t happen. This whole country has a massive gear problem and posh boys and folk in London have it much more so.
Heck didn’t half the parliment admit to smoking weed last year, would bet coke use is much more rife. Absolutely no reason anyone in parliment is gonna risk a big chunk of MPs and presumably many more civil servants.
Surely the best thing for any opposition to do now is to publicly screen all their MPs and put pressure on tories knowing that some of them will fail.
Assuming they’re all clean anyway which seems to be a lot to ask for
I heard a rumour Jacob Rees-Mogg hoovers the stuff up
That’s just not going to happen though, is it. Charlie enthusiast and over sided schoolboy Michael Gove won’t allow dogs anywhere near the seat of power, or even the footstool of control.
Can sniffer dogs detect cocaine?
Surely random spot tests that they administer road side would be better?
We’re being ruled by a bunch of coked up nutcases?
Never?!?
Why bother with dogs, do what they do in the military.. random drug tests.Test positive and your escorted off the promises no ifs and butt’s then run a by-election. Once they know their eighty grand salary is at stake they’ll soon fall into line.
Nothing would happen if it did sniff someone out. They should have bullshit sniffer dogs, in parliament, who sit near someone who is telling lies.
Ah, another job for the procurer of wild beasts for parliament as seen in that documentary Brass Eye.
Dog finds drugs, drugs get confiscated.. No one knew who it belongs to, the end.
… Personally if they want to go this route, I would prefer mandatory drug testing in parliament, name & shame, suspend.
Let it be known after years of turning a blind eye, that drug use is still a strict nono, starting with Parliament.
Either that or legalise it, tax & join the rest of the world to modernise our society, in a country where Alcohol is a perfectly accepted/encouraged norm I see no reason for lesser drugs to be any different.