Conservative leadership hopeful Michael Gove has said he “deeply regrets” taking cocaine “on several occasions”.
The Environment Secretary said he used the drug 20 years ago and branded it “a mistake”.
It comes after fellow Tory contender Rory Stewart apologised for smoking opium at a wedding in Iran.
Mr Gove told the Daily Mail: “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 think ‘I wish I hadn’t done that’.”
Rory Stewart has apologised for smoking opium at a wedding in Iran (Victoria Jones/PA)
He added: “It was 20 years ago and yes, it was a mistake. But I don’t believe that past mistakes disqualify you.”
Mr Gove, MP for Surrey Heath, said it would be up to his colleagues whether he should be leader, but added that he did not “act with an eye” on going into politics when he was younger.
“The question now is that people should look at my record as a politician and ask themselves ‘is this person we see ready to lead now?’,” he said.
Speaking to Sky News last week, International Development Secretary Mr Stewart said: “I think it was a very stupid mistake and I did it 15 years ago, and I actually went on in Iran to see the damage that opium was doing to communities.”
He added: “I’ve seen it as a prisons minister. It was something that was very wrong, I made a stupid mistake.
“I was at a wedding in a large community meeting and somebody passed this pipe around the room and I smoked it – I shouldn’t have done, I was wrong.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel