Reports of traces of cocaine having been found in Chevening and Downing Street during Liz Truss’ brief tenure – allegations she refutes – last week reignited discussions about politicians and their use of drugs. Politicians – though we might sometimes believe otherwise – are human beings like the rest of us, and this list is not about (to borrow a phrase from the Labour Party) naming and shaming them for their drug use.
It’s about hypocrisy, inconsistency and a total lack of responsibility. It’s about the pathetic state of our political discourse about drugs and people who use them. It’s about the system that allows these people to be so brazen about their drug use, flaunting their privilege, whilst others are criminalised and have their lives destroyed for doing exactly the same thing. It’s about inequity and injustice.
To be fair to the people on this list who’ve admitted to using drugs – something over ⅓ of the population do during their lifetime – they deserve a modicum of credit for speaking about it. Obviously, the easy thing to do would be to give the politicians’ answer, stall, or pivot to some ‘just say no’ messaging – or just lie altogether.
But whilst I respect them for their honesty, I resent the double standards that many on this list display towards drugs whereby their drug use is excusable, they just made a mistake or were experimenting at university, but they believe the full force of the law should come down on anyone who so much as smells of weed.
Hopefully, by laying out in black and white just how many of our political class have admitted to drug use, it will make clear just how pious and gratuitous the prohibitionist ‘crackdown’ approach to drugs propagated by our political class is – ‘Do as I say not as I do’.
You can find out who your MP is using the tool on the parliament website.
Conservatives:
Boris Johnson: In addition to admitting that he had smoked ‘quite a few spliffs’ at university, the former PM and Mayor of London has spoken on multiple occasions through the years about his drug use. He first gave an account of his experience of cocaine while appearing on TV show “Have I Got News For You” in 2005. “I think I was once given cocaine but I sneezed and so it did not go up my nose,” he said. “In fact, I may have been doing icing sugar.”
He later told GQ magazine in 2007: “I tried it at university and I remember it vividly. “And it achieved no pharmacological, psychotropic or any other effect on me whatsoever.”
Asked about those previous comments in a 2008 interview, when he was standing for Mayor of London, Mr Johnson said: “Well, that was when I was 19. “It all goes to show that, sometimes, it’s better not to say anything.”Following that interview, Mr Johnson said days later: “To say that I have taken cocaine is simply untrue.” He added: “As I have said many times, I was once at university offered a white substance, none of which went up my nose and I have no idea whether it was cocaine or not.”
Johnson famously dressed up as a police officer and accompanied police on drugs raids during his time as PM, during which time he was caught on TikToK in a viral video, and pursued a war on ‘middle class drug users’. The London borough with the most drug offences in 2020/21? Westminster of course.
Jeremy Hunt: The current Chancellor and Former Health Secretary admitted during the 2019 leadership contest to drinking a cannabis lassi whilst backpacking in India during an interview with The Times.
Michael Gove: Also during the 2019 contest, Gove told the Daily Mail that he had taken cocaine on ‘several occasions’ over 20 years ago and ‘deeply regretted’ doing so.
David Cameron: Remember him? The guy who caused Brexit then retreated to a shed in his garden to write his (actually not a bad read) memoirs? The former PM has admitted to being “off his head” whilst using cannabis during his schooldays at Eton College. He also said he later smoked it with his future wife Samantha, whom he met aged 25, and her friends.
Cameron wrote in his autobiography: ‘Trouble started brewing for me in my third year due to my growing sense of being mediocre, a mild obsession about being trapped in my big brother’s shadow and a weakness for going with the crowd, even when the crowd was going in the wrong direction.
‘Three of us used to hire one of the school’s double scull rowing boats and head off to a small island in the middle of the Thames called Queen’s Eyot… Once there, we would roll up and spend a summer’s afternoon gently off our heads.’
Police later told the school that Etonians were heading into Slough to buy the drugs and seven boys were expelled. Cameron was instead fined, grounded and stripped of privileges.
Whilst he has openly admitted using cannabis, his 2005 leadership election bid was almost derailed due to a week-long scandal about his potential cocaine use. According to the Observer:
‘Did you use any drugs at Oxford?’ (Andrew) Rawnsley asked (of Cameron). Amid nervous laughter from the audience, Cameron answered by not answering: ‘There were things I did as a student that I don’t think I should talk about now that I am a politician.’ When Rawnsley, to more laughter, said: ‘I can take that as a “yes”,’ Cameron held firm to his line: that was then. Life before politics is off limits.
He went on a few days later to confirm only that he had not taken cocaine since he had become an MP. But offered no denial about using it before being elected to parliament. Refusing to do so again during an interview with Jeremy Paxman the month after.
Dominic Raab: The former Brexit and Foriegn Secretary and current Justice Secretary, who is also deputy prime minister, has admitted using cannabis, but insisted he had “never taken cocaine or any class A drugs’. He said: “At university, I tried cannabis, not very often as I was into sport. It was a mistake, particularly the more I know now about the link between it and mental health issues.”
Andrea Leadsom: Also during the 2019 leadership contest, Leadsom told The Independent “I have never taken cocaine or Class A drugs… Everyone is entitled to a private life before becoming an MP. I smoked weed at university and have never smoked it again since.”
Matt Hancock: Sources close to Hancock told The Telegraph, ALSO during the 2019 leadership contest, that he “tried cannabis a few times as a student but has not taken any illicit drugs since.”
Esther McVey: The MP for Tatton since 2017, the former Work & Pensions Secretary admitted to using cannabis, you guessed it, during the 2019 Conservative leadership election, when asked by a reporter whether she ‘smoked pot as a younger woman’, McVey replied: “Yes, that’s right.” She also confirmed when asked by Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, saying “I’ve tried blow, pot, marijuana, like anybody else at university I’ve tried it.
“This is the age of transparency and I’ll admit I’ve tried it.” Later in the interview when asked about her thoughts on legalisation, she said “Yes I’ve tried it – I haven’t looked at it to be legalised, I don’t want to see a potential gateway to other drugs.”
James Cleverly: The former Education Secretary and current Foriegn Secretary admitted to using cannabis in a quick-fire interview for John Pienaar’s Backbencher’s Questions on Radio 5 Live in 2015. The MP for Braintree, simply answered “yes” when asked whether he had ever done drugs. “I had a little dabble with marijuana at university,” he said. Asked if he inhaled, he said: “Of course, that’s the point, to paraphrase Obama. I don’t recommend it, it’s a waste of money, waste of time and just not very good for your future prospects.”
Theresa Villiers: Chipping Barnet MP since 2005 and former Northern Ireland and DEFRA Secretary, Villiers has been an advocate for medical cannabis in Parliament and told the BBC she “had about three attempts of cannabis at university, only the last time I managed to inhale and was sick”. “So I never touched it again and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else.”
She said although her approach to drug policy “has always been pragmatic” and she was open to reform, she was reluctant to advocate legalisation of cannabis because of the “very serious health downsides”. Not serious enough to prevent her trying it three times though…
Norman Lamont: The former Conservative Chancellor and current Lord of Lerwick admitted he had eaten cannabis in a so-called “space cake”. He said: “I have not smoked cannabis. But I did eat a tiny bit of cannabis cake and all I can say is I enjoyed the cake but that is all.” He added that “in general” people’s youthful experimentation “should not be held against them”.
Rory Stewart: 2019 Tory leadership candidate, former International Development Secretary, and independent Mayor of London candidate Stewart admitted smoking opium (yes, really) at a wedding in Iran in 2004 (when he was aged 31!).
When discussing his drug use he said “I made a stupid mistake – I was at a wedding in a large community meeting and somebody passed round this pipe and I smoked it…But it may be that the family was so poor they put very little opium in the pipe.”
Ruth Davidson: During a public debate in Glasgow in the 2015 general election, then Scottish Conservatives leader and now Baroness Davidson admitted to having taken cannabis. Ms Davidson said: “I went to Buckhaven High School, what do you think?… once or twice and it made me feel really sick.” In the same programme, Davidson argued against the legalisation of cannabis, saying that “I think some things are worth more than money, and the health of our nation is one of them.”
Louise Mensch: A rare foray into the world of Class A drugs now, Conservative MP for Corby for just two years between 2010 and 2012, in 2011 Mensch admitted to “probably” taking drugs, saying to journalists who claimed to have pictures of her taking drugs in a nightclub with punk violinist Nigel Kennedy “Although I do not remember the specific incident, this sounds highly probable… since I was in my twenties, I’m sure it was not the only incident of the kind; we all do idiotic things when young.” She later posted a message on Twitter saying her actions had been “idiotic”, adding that it was “never a good idea to mess with your brain”.
A year later Mensch appeared on BBC Question Time, telling the audience she did class A drugs in her youth and that it had “long term mental health” effects on her. “The plain fact of the matter is drugs are incredibly addictive and destroy lives,” she said. “Given that scourge is there the question is what you do about it.”
‘It’s caused me to be more anxious than I need to be… I did serious drugs and it messed with my head and it’s a terrible thing’ she also said. In the same BBC QT appearance, she went on to say she opposed the legalisation of drugs, since making them more easily available was ‘exactly the wrong way to go’.
Bernard Jenkin: In October 2000, Jenkin was one of seven Tory MPs who admitted to having used cannabis in a joint article for the Mail on Sunday. The then Shadow Social Security Secretary said he had tried cannabis a couple of times in his early twenties when he was working for Ford at its Brentwood head office. He also confirmed he had never tried drugs as a student.
Oliver Letwin: MP for West Dorset from 1997-2019 and former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, when he was shadow chief secretary to the treasury Letwin said: “At Cambridge, I was a very pretentious student. I grew a beard and took up a pipe. On one occasion some friends put some dope in a pipe I was smoking. It had absolutely no effect on me at all. I don’t inhale pipes.”
When he was shadow Home Secretary in 2002, Letwin suggested that ‘young addicts who refused to co-operate might be trailed by police to collect evidence for a prosecution’. His stance on drugs later seemed to somewhat soften as he said that both people who use drugs and those who sell them were ‘victims’ rather than ‘miscreants’.
Peter Ainsworth: During his stint as Shadow Culture Secretary in 2000, Ainsworth said: “The fact is, in my opinion, nobody is going to die of cannabis and I think it is unrealistic to expect people not to come across it. I came across it, I never owned it, I never bought it but I was in places where it was going around, so very, very, occasionally I had a puff.” He went on to explain that he “didn’t want to live my life without discovering what it was like.” Not sure that one would stand up in court…
Francis Maude: An MP from 1983 to 2015 and now Lord Maude of Horsham, when he was shadow foreign secretary, Maude said: “It was hard to go through Cambridge in the 70s without doing it a few times.”
Tim Yeo: When he was shadow agriculture spokesperson, Yeo said: “I was offered it on occasion and enjoyed it. I think it can have a much pleasanter experience than having too much to drink.” The South Suffolk MP’s comments came after then Tory leader William Hague attempted to u-turn on his hardline zero-tolerance policy on cannabis. Yeo was the first Tory MP on record to say he enjoyed using the drug.
Archie Norman: Also during the 2000 Tory drugs fiasco, Shadow spokesman on environment, transport and the regions (succeeded in post by one Theresa May) and MP for Tunbridge Wells said: “You expect human beings to explore and experiment. If you don’t, you haven’t been young.” Going to say “I don’t regret it – you have to explore and experiment”
David Willetts: When he was the shadow social security secretary, the now Lord David Willetts said of his cannabis use: “I had two puffs and didn’t like it.” He later went on to expand on this, saying ‘I tried it once and didn’t like it. I’ve not had any drugs since.’ To give Willetts his due, he went on to defend Prof. David Nutt’s right to disagree with government policy after his infamous sacking by the Labour government in 2009.
Robert Jackson: MP for Wantage between 1983 and 2005 (defecting from the Tories to Labour in 2005), Jackson confessed to using cannabis in an article in the Oxford Mail in 2001.
Lord Strathclyde: Admitted to smoking cannabis, saying: “I tried cannabis when I was at university 20 years ago”
David Prior: In 1998 Tory MP David Prior – now Lord Prior of Brampton and son of former cabinet minister James Prior – confessed he had smoked cannabis as a young man. The North Norfolk MP wrote at the time: “I associate my experience with drugs (soft ones) not with Mick Jagger or Aldous Huxley but with passing my law degree and working in a bank.” He said he found it “relaxing”.
Labour:
Keir Starmer: Okay so whilst the Labour leader has never *explicitly* offered an admission of drug taking, when offered the opportunity in two high profile interviews he’s refused to do so nearly twenty times.
Firstly, in an episode of Piers Morgan’s life stories in 2021, Starmer was asked if he had ever taken drugs and refused on 14 occasions to deny it, saying “we had a good time at university” and “it’s not a denial”. Then in an interview on The Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast he was asked again about the topic and gave the same answer.
During his time as Labour leader, the party has been relentless in its ‘tough on drugs’ rhetoric including floating plans to ‘name and shame drug users’ and there’s been a pretty open civil war about drug policy in the party, with senior figures such excoriating Sadiq Khan’s plans to establish a London Drugs Commission, saying Khan wouldn’t be allowed to turn London into a ‘drugs supermarket’.
Sir Keir’s tone deaf ‘bad boy’ act when asked about his own drug use isn’t clever or funny, it’s embarrassing and grotesque.
Given Labour’s intervention on drugs this week, let’s remind ourselves of what @Keir_Starmer himself had to say when asked about his own drug use…
— Volteface (@VoltefaceHub) April 30, 2022
Lisa Nandy: MP for Wigan since 2010, the current Shadow Levelling Up Secretary said when asked about drug use at university: “I’ve engaged in all sorts of things over the years, but I do regret it actually. You take risks when you’re younger and you don’t understand the consequences. I certainly didn’t think through the consequences of the things that I was doing when I was 17 or 18 years old, but you learn from it.”
Liz Kendall: MP for Leicester West since 2010 and last placed candidate in the 2015 leadership election, Kendall said she “had a few smokes when I was in college… but that’s never been my favourite form of relaxation”.
Yvette Cooper: Current Shadow Home Secretary, and MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford since 1997, Cooper became the first serving minister to admit to drug use when in 2000 she said “I did try cannabis while at university, like a lot of students at that time, and it is something that I have left behind.”
Harriet Harman: Twice acting leader of the opposition, and MP for Camberwell and Peckham since 1982, Harman said of her drug use in an interview in 2007: “I did, when I was at university, smoke cannabis once or twice.” But she quickly added she had not taken the drug since then. “I have indulged in the odd glass of wine but not cannabis.”
Sadiq Khan: MP for Tooting from 2005 to 2016 and Mayor of London since then, Khan said during an LBC interview in 2017 that he had smoked cannabis “in Amsterdam a long, long time ago when I was a lot younger. “I was young once and I’m not a prude. And I did inhale as well.”
Andy Burnham: MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017 and Mayor of Greater Manchester since then, when he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Burnham said he had smoked it “once or twice at university” but never since. When running for the Labour leadership in 2015, he said he had used cannabis and ‘absolutely nothing else’.
When asked at Labour Conference in 2022 about his views on cannabis legalisation, he argued against a change in approach, citing the Netherlands as somewhere where drug policy reform, in his view, had not elicited the desired results.
Stephen Kinnock: MP for Abervaon since 2015 and son of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, admitted on BBC Question Time that he had taken cannabis at school, “as far as I could see about half of the intake in that school was smoking weed and I was part of that half.” Kinnock went on to argue passionately against our current drug laws, saying that “The war on drugs is being lost… causing tremendous disruption in society, heartbreak.”
Caroline Flint: MP for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019, during which time she oversaw the downgrading of cannabis from Class B to C, and the reclassification of magic mushrooms to class A, Flint admitted two weeks into her role as drugs minister in 2003 that she had smoked cannabis as a student, but hadn’t enjoyed it and didn’t do it again because it was illegal, which “acted as a brake” on her actions.
Tony McNulty: When a Home Office minister in 2007, Mr McNulty who was MP for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010 told BBC News 24: “At university I encountered it, I smoked it once or twice, and I don’t think many people who were at university at the time didn’t at least encounter it.”
Jacqui Smith: The MP for Redditch from 1997 to 2010 and the first female Home Secretary (2007-2009), Smith admitted to using cannabis, she said she had smoked it “just a few times,” had “not particularly” enjoyed it and had not taken any other illegal drugs. “I did break the law… I was wrong… drugs are wrong,”. She also said, “I think it was wrong that I smoked it when I did. I have not done for 25 years. I have never taken any other drugs.” “One of the things about being a politician is that you are often criticised for not knowing what’s going on…I hope that my experiences in my life have actually helped me understand that I do want crime tackled…On the whole I think people think human beings should do jobs like this. I am not proud about it, I did the wrong thing.”
All of this came during a GMTV interview in which Smith was fearmongering about the dangers of cannabis use and advocating in her role as Home Secretary for the reclassification of the substance from Class C – to which it had been downgraded only a few years earlier – back to Class B. Smith later said she regretted her approach to cannabis whilst she was Home Secretary.
Vernon Coaker: The MP for Gedling from 1997 to 2019 and now Lord Coaker, the former deputy headteacher and Home Office minister with responsibility for drugs was on his first ministerial outing at a drugs project in the Midlands when he told the Coventry Evening Telegraph: “When I was a student, I took one or two puffs of marijuana but that was it. I think it was once or twice.”
Hazel Blears: MP for Salford and Eccles from 1997 to 2015, the former Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has said she tried the drug (cannabis) “once or twice when very young.”
Patricia Hewitt: MP for Leicester West from 1997 to 2010, the former Health Secretary said: “I tried cannabis once when I was a student. It didn’t do anything for me and I never tried it again. I’ve not used any other illegal drugs.”
Mo Mowlam: MP for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and notable former Northern Ireland secretary during the Good Friday Agreement, she admitted tp smoking cannabis whilst she was a student in America. She said: “I tried marijuana, didn’t like it particularly and, unlike President Clinton, I did inhale. But it wasn’t part of my life.”
Charles Clarke: MP for Norwich South from 1997 to 2010, the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke admitted smoking cannabis “two or three times” in his teens and said he regretted taking the drug. He said: “I was asked if I had ever taken drugs and I replied I had taken it a couple of times in my late teens. It is important to tell the truth.”
Ruth Kelly: MP for Bolton West from 1997 until 2010, the former Transport Secretary, said she had smoked cannabis “in her youth”. A spokeswoman for her also said: “She recognises that it was foolish and a silly thing to do, and she stopped.”
John Hutton: Now the Lord Hutton of Furness, Hutton was MP for Barrow and Furness from 1992 to 2010. In 2007, a spokesman for John Hutton, the former business, enterprise and regulatory reform secretary, said: “He now regrets doing it, having seen the damage that cannabis can cause among some of the young people in his constituency.”
John Denham: MP for Southampton from 1992 to 2015, The former Skills Secretary told his local paper that he took the drug when he was a student.
Alistair Darling: The current Lord Darling of Roulanish, and MP from 1987 to 2015, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer confessed he had smoked cannabis “occasionally in my youth”.
Jim Knight: MP for South Dorset from 2001 to 2010 and now Lord Knight of Weymouth, the former Schools Minister spoke about his cannabis use in a local newspaper in 2007. In an interview Knight said: “I did try it at university and, like Jacqui Smith, I regret that and didn’t enjoy it… It is important that people are honest but it is more important what we do now than what people did 25 years ago.”
His comments came during a row about the potential reclassification of cannabis from class C to class B, a move which Mr Knight said was ‘appropriate action’ despite his own use of the drug.
Others:
Nicola Sturgeon: When asked at a leaders debate during the 2015 general election, SNP leader Sturgeon replied: “Once, probably, possibly at this university, and it made me awful sick.”
Chuka Ummuna: Once tipped as a future Labour leader, Ummuna, who sat in the Commons as MP for Streatham from 2010 to 2019 for no fewer than THREE parties (Labour, Change UK, Lib Dems) told the Sunday Times in 2012 he was “not proud” of smoking cannabis, but that he did not consider having done so was “news any more, to be honest”. he said he took the drug while working in the music industry and the experience had put him off a a career as a DJ. He added he had never taken anything “beyond marijuana”.
Jo Swinson: The former Lib Dem leader and ‘Britain’s next prime minister’ pledged to legalise cannabis should the Lib Dems win the 2019 election, during which time she said in an interview with Newsnight: ‘I’m not going to be one of those people who says “I tried it once and I didn’t really inhale”. ‘Yes, I enjoyed it. And it wasn’t unusual… lots of people do it and we should enable them to do it more safely.’
Swinson went on to boldly critique our current drug laws, saying ‘We’re criminalising far too many young people. It’s also meaning that it becomes a gateway to other crime.
‘If instead we can regulate the cannabis market, we can raise taxation revenue from that, we can set regulations about the safety of the cannabis which is bought and sold.
‘Then we can create a much safer environment. This is something that is led by the evidence.
‘It’s happened in other countries where they’ve seen a decrease in crime rate and indeed they’ve been able to make sure people’s health has been protected too.’ You can watch the full interview here.
Adam Price: The leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018, and former MP Carmarthen East and Dinefwr from 2001-2010, Price said “As a gay man who first went clubbing in the 1990s it would be a bit of a surprise if I hadn’t taken drugs.”
He also said he was “not proud” of it… But I’m not going to lie about it either… 15 million people in this country have taken illegal drugs… that’s got to be a message to us that prohibition has failed in the most dismal way possible,” he said.
Matthew Taylor: The former Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, MP for Truro and St Austell and now Lord Taylor of Goss Moor, admitted in 2000 that he tried cannabis as a student. He said: “I’ve certainly been at parties where dope was smoked. I’m not a smoker, so you’d try a drag and all you’d do is cough. It was absolutely disgusting.”
Susan Kramer: MP for Richmond Park from 2005 to 2010, London mayoral candidate for the Lib Dems in 2000 and now Baroness Kramer admitted she had smoked cannabis as a student.
Leanne Wood: Leader of Plaid Cymru from 2012-2018 and former Welsh AM member for South Wales Central and later for Rhondda, Speaking to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire she had taken “Cannabis, a long time ago. But I was younger and a student – I tried a few.”
Notable Abstainers:
Ed Miliband: During the 2015 general election, the former Labour leader, current Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero, and MP for Doncaster North since 2005, Miliband told an ITV News online discussion “I’ve never taken drugs… but I have read about them” going on to also say he was ‘always looking at the way[s] we [can] discourage young people from taking drugs… I’m not in favour of decriminalisation of, for example, cannabis… think there are mental effects of cannabis that people maybe didn’t realise a decade ago.’
This video from the 2015 election where Ed is absolutely torn apart on his cannabis policy by an audience of young people – including one very articulate young woman – is a must watch.
Rishi Sunak: Despite accidentally labelling himself a ‘total coke addict’ and the fact that one might suggest that having been to Winchester, then Oxford, and then worked as a banker he’s probably not lacked exposure to drugs, but during the first 2022 leadership election Sunak firmly denied ever taking drugs.
Rishi Sunak says he’s never used illegal drugshttps://t.co/FrbDPq3bGK
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) July 28, 2022
Liz Truss: Whilst much was made of Truss’ backing of the legalisation of cannabis as a student, during the same hustings as Sunak, Truss also denied ever using illegal drugs.
Jeremy Corbyn: Another former Labour leader, and now independent MP for Islington North, during the 2015 Labour leadership election he was the only one of the candidates to not admit to taking drugs, saying that he was ‘really boring, no, never’
Sajid Javid: During the 2019 leadership election, Javid said that watching the “centre of the local drugs trade” happening around his family home was enough to put the former Home Secretary, Health Secretary and Chancellor Sajid Javid off ever taking drugs. The MP for Bromsgrove since 2010 who has said he is standing down at the next election, has repeated on numerous occasions his denial about ever using any drugs.
Tony Blair: In a 2004 interview, the former PM denied taking drugs, noting: “The only thing my father really drummed into me was never to take drugs. And, anyway, I was doing so many other things that I never needed to.”
Gordon Brown: The former PM told the BBC during the Jacqui Smith cannabis use saga in 2007 that he had never used any drugs.
John Reid: After cannabis resin was found in Reid’s home, the former Home Secretary said: “I have no idea where it came from, or when. There is absolutely no suggestion that this in any way involves me or members of my family and both I and Strathclyde police regard the matter as closed.”
Theresa May: Nice and simple, in classic Theresa May style, in 2019 a spokesperson for the outgoing PM said: ‘Theresa May has never taken any illegal drugs.’
Alan Johnson: Former Home Secretary and Health Secretary and MP for Kingston-Upon-Hull and West Hessle, Alan Johnson, said he “did the sex and rock and roll but not the drugs”.
All facts are correct and hyperlinks provided where possible at time of writing.
Do you know of any others that we’ve missed? Get in touch using info@volteface.me or @voltefacehub on twitter and we’ll add yours to the list with a credit.
This piece was written by Jay Jackson, Head of Policy & Public Affairs at Volteface. Tweets @wordsbyjayj