The shameful drug-use list of senior politicians who frame the nation’s drug laws includes:

David Cameron – cannabis;

Boris Johnson – cocaine;

Rory Stewart – opium;

Jeremy Hunt – cannabis;

Michael Gove – cocaine.

The latest MP to admit former crimes is of course the environment secretary, who this week came clean on taking cocaine “on several occasions” more than 20 years ago.

Mr Gove, 51, who is among the frontrunners in the race to replace Theresa May, joins a string of senior Tories who have dabbled with the bad stuff in their earlier years. 

In 2007 it was revealed Mr Cameron got into trouble at Eton after he owned up to smoking cannabis. 

Britain’s future leader was disciplined at the age of 15 for breaking the rules at the notoriously posh private boys’ school. 

In 2016, nine years after he admitted smoking a “spliff” in his youth, the Prime Minister was branded a “hypocrite” for opposing the legalisation of cannabis. 

Another top Tory to experiment with illegal substances is Boris Johnson, is tipped to be the country’s next prime minister. 

The politician – the bookies’ favourite to succeed Theresa May – took cocaine and cannabis as a teenager at Oxford. 

And in May, fellow Tory leadership contestant Rory Stewart admitted smoking opium at a wedding party in Iran. 

The international development secretary apologised for smoking the class-A drug and admitted his actions had been illegal under the laws of the Islamic Republic. 

He called his poor choice “very wrong” and said he went on to see the havoc the drug had wreaked in communities when he served as prisons minister. 

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said a concoction he tasted in India during his travelling days may have contained cannabis. 

He told The Times: “I think I had a cannabis lassi when I went backpacking through India.”

On Friday, Mr Gove admitted to the Daily Mail he consumed illegal substances “on several occasions”, adding that it was a mistake and he regretted his actions. 

He said: “I took drugs on several occasions at social events more than 20 years ago. 

“At the time I was a young journalist. It was a mistake. I look back and I think, I wish I hadn’t done that.’

Mr Gove said his drug use was not enough to disqualify him from the race for the Tory leadership crown. 

Theresa May officially stepped down as Prime Minister on Friday but will remain in office in a caretaker role until a new leader is elected. 

Mrs May has said she expects a new prime minister to be in place by the end of July, before MPs take their summer holidays. 

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