Since being appointed to the post of Home Secretary, Priti Patel has made her distaste for drugs clear. During the past two years the Witham MP has accompanied police on house raids, deported foreign dealers, declared war on ‘county lines’ gangs and threatened ‘tough action’ on laughing gas.
There have been repeated departmental briefings to newspapers about crackdowns on ‘middle class drug-users,’ with Patel herself telling broadcasters that ‘there’s no such thing as dabbling in drugs, these are serious offences’ – a statement which presumably caused some discomfort among certain ministerial colleagues.
Her rapturously received address to the Tory faithful on Tuesday highlighted the Home Office’s anti-drugs crusade once again. Patel railed against narcotics for being ‘responsible for the crimes I am committed to cutting,’ claiming that ‘while Sir Keir Starmer backs calls to decriminalise drugs, we will take the tough decisions needed to build back safer’ as ‘our values embody service before self.
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