Senior MPs are considering bringing drug sniffer dogs into parliament to combat drug use after 11 out of 12 tested sites tested positive for cocaine.
Locations included bathrooms near to Boris Johnson and Priti Patel’s offices according to The Sunday Times.
Charles Walker, chair of the Commons Administration Committee, said, “The House of Commons has a long history of using sniffer dogs to detect explosives. It may be that we now need to broaden the range of sniffer dogs to include those which can detect drugs.”
The news follows Boris Johnson’s interview with The Sun on Sunday published today where he spoke about a proposed clampdown on drug offenders.
Boris said, “Drugs are driving a lot of misery and we can fix it. They’re not going to make you happier. They’re not going to make you more successful. They’re not going to make you cooler. They’re bad news.
“Most of the crime driven by drugs is generated by 300,000 heroin and crack cocaine users — tragic people who have lost their way in life.
“You can lock them up again and again and we do but they come out again and reoffend so we have got to rehabilitate them.
“But then there is a separate group who can cope but who are also feeding the demand and helping to create the economics of the business.
“I don’t want to stereotype them but I’m talking about lifestyle drugs. These people think it’s a victimless crime.
“It isn’t. The country is littered with victims of what’s happened. We are going to look at new ways of penalising them.
“Things that will actually interfere with their lives so we will look at taking away passports and driving licences.
“It’s been a long time since the government said drugs are bad and dangerous and killing kids up and down the country and it’s time we did something about it. I came in on a pledge to cut crime and it has come down quite a long way. But we need to go further.”
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