Blunkett challenges Howard over cannabis

Friday, 23 January 2004 12:00 AM

Tory leader Michael Howard has refused to deny he ever smoked cannabis during his student days at Cambridge.

Home Secretary David Blunkett pressed Mr Howard yesterday for the answer to the question, as the Tories rounded on the Government's proposed reclassification of the drug from B to class C.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Howard slammed the reclassification as "absurd."

Mr Blunkett himself denies taking the drug. "No I never smoked cannabis," he told the BBC's Today programme.

"But if I had, I would be quite transparent about it because 40-odd per cent of under 30-year-olds have."

He called on Mr Howard to own up. "Let's ask him (Mr Howard) 'Did you ever smoke it?"'

Mr Howard declined, saying: "I take exactly the same view on it as the Government took in October 2000 when every Cabinet minister was asked. They all said it was not an appropriate question to answer."

But Mr Blunkett was asked whether the Prime Minister even took the drug during his days in a rock band at Oxford. Mr Blunkett's answer seemed inconsistent with his earlier arguments. He said: "Goodness me, he played the guitar very well, but it is not synonymous with having a puff."

Downing Street distanced itself from the comments. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said Mr Blunkett's remarks were nothing more than a "bit of political knockabout."

The Tories last night highlighted statements by Cabinet members who refused to respond to a Daily Mail drugs survey in October 2000.

Jack Straw, John Prescott, Margaret Beckett, Geoff Hoon, John Reid and Alistair Darling all refused to respond.

Several Tories have admitted taking the drug, willingly or otherwise. They include Oliver Letwin, David Willetts, Francis Maude, Peter Ainsworth, Archie Norman, Bernard Jenkin, Lord Strathclyde and Tim Yeo.

Mr Howard last night said he did not want to see journalists "going round every Conservative Member of Parliament and every member of the Shadow Cabinet asking that question."

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