EXCL Sajid Javid tells middle-class drug users they are fuelling rise in violent crime
3 min read
Middle class drug users are helping to fuel the rise in violent crime across the country, Sajid Javid has said.
The Home Secretary said people who are "well-off and in really well-paid jobs" taking drugs at home have no idea about the trail of misery which has gone into supplying the substances they consume.
Speaking to The House magazine, Mr Javid also called on MPs to get behind Theresa May's Brexit deal, urging them to consider the prospect of either leaving with no deal at all or of Brexit being scrapped when deciding how to vote.
On drugs, the minister said: "There are people that sadly will be well-off and in really well-paid jobs and they might finish their dinner party and call up someone they know, some nice guy, who turns up at their door and hands them drugs. But they don’t see any of the whole supply chain that was utilised to bring them that drug.
"There’s modern slavery involved, young children in county lines gangs being exploited, there’s violence and possibly death. All this is what happens to bring the drugs to their door.
"Some people think they’re not responsible for any of that. Anyone who is taking these kinds of drugs needs to think about the impact they have on others and how they’re helping to cause this violence and exploitation, particularly of young people."
Mr Javid was a long-term eurosceptic, but angered many of his Conservative colleagues when he decided to back Remain in the EU referendum.
He has expressed his concerns about the Brexit deal Theresa May has struck with Brussels in private, but told The House that MPs should support it when it comes before Parliament next month.
"I think that the draft agreement the Prime Minister has reached with our EU friends delivers on the referendum," he said. "The country made a clear decision, it delivered instructions to the politicians and we have to obey those instructions.
"What the Prime Minister has worked on is a deal that I believe delivers on that. It gives us back control of our laws, of our money and our borders. We won’t be subject to the European Court of Justice, we won’t be paying vast sums into the EU going forward."
Asked what his message was to Tory MPs who have pledged to vote the deal down, he said: "Take your time to understand the agreement – what it is but also what it isn’t. Secondly, think about what the alternative would be to not having this deal.
"There is a risk that if we don’t have this deal there could be no Brexit at all, because there are some in Parliament who are calling for a second referendum. I’m completely against a second referendum.
"The decision has been made by the British people and it would be thoroughly undemocratic to go back and ask the same question all over again, yet there are some people demanding this. I also don’t want to see a chaotic no-deal. If we don’t get an agreement, then there is a risk of no-deal and we can’t rule that out."
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