People should break the law by using cannabis at the Houses of Parliament, an MP has claimed.
Labour’s Paul Flynn called on people to take the Class B drug at Westminster and “challenge the authorities to arrest them”.
Flynn made the comments in a House of Commons debate on drugs policy on Tuesday.
Provocation
Although he admitted that MPs “are not supposed to” encourage people to break the law, he went on to advise people to use the drug at Parliament anyway and “see what happens”.
He said this would be the “only way to get through to the Government’s mind, which is set in concrete”.
Last November, the Government rejected fresh calls for the legalisation of the drug.
A number of MPs, including former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, gave their support to a pro-cannabis report in favour of legalisation.
‘No plans’
The report, released by think-tank The Adam Smith Institute and pro-drug group VolteFace, claimed that legalisation would earn up to £1 billion every year in tax revenue.
But a spokesman for the Home Office said it had “no plans to legalise cannabis”.
Cannabis is a Class B drug which carries a maximum sentence for possession of five years and an unlimited fine.