Met chief reveals she personally looked into drug admissions made by Tory leader hopefuls
Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, has said she personally looked into drug admissions made by Conservative leadership hopefuls but said there would not be enough evidence to bring charges. At the start of the Conservative Party leadership contest, Tory MPs running for the top job were grilled over whether they had ever taken drugs. The questioning started after it was revealed that Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, who was just short of reaching the final two candidates for the top job, had taken cocaine 20-years ago while working as a journalist.
Rory Stewart also said he had smoked opium in Iran 15 years ago, while Jeremy Hunt said he drank a cannabis lassi while backpacking in India.
Speaking on LBC’s Nick Ferrari breakfast show, Ms Dick said: “We have had a very quick look at all the things that have been in the public domain.
“You have to satisfy two things. Firstly is there evidence and secondly, the CPS would have to decide would it be in the public interest to take any action.
“Of course with things being so historic, it’s almost certainly not in the public interest but actually in the cases that we have read about, and I’m not talking about any of them specifically, but in all those cases there is no sign that there would be sufficient evidence.”
I just said to my team, somebody’s going to ask me the exact question
Cressida Dick
She added: “I looked at it myself.
“I just said to my team, somebody’s going to ask me the exact question. I think I know the answer but let’s just double check.
“The answer is on the basis of what we know, on what we’ve seen, there is no sign whatsoever that there would be sufficient evidence to take somebody to court, so we won’t be doing any investigating.”
Environment Secretary Mr Gove said taking cocaine “was a crime and a mistake” during an interview with BBC’s Andrew Marr.
Speaking on LBC on Tuesday, Mr Johnson was asked whether he had ever taken Class A drugs. He said: “As has been extensively documented Ad nauseam, I have confessed on prime time BBC, at the age of 19 of attempting.
“I think that particular event or non-event of more than 30-years ago has been extensively documented”.
When asked on the World at One earlier this month when he last took cocaine, Mr Johnson said: “I have answered the question exhaustively.
“It was a single inconclusive event that took place when I was a teenager and which I have extensively described already on the BBC.”
Other leadership candidates including Andrea Leadsom, Dominic Raab and Matt Hancock all said they had smoked cannabis.
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