'Have you taken cocaine?' David Cameron declines to answer Ed Balls after Commons drugs slur backfires

The Prime Minister faced renewed questions about past drug use after he tried to humiliate a Labour MP in the Commons
No answer: David Cameron
David Cameron sparked fresh questions about his drug use when he tried to humiliate a Labour MP in the Commons today.

Mr Cameron repeatedly raised disgraced Co-op bank chief Rev Paul Flowers’ use of “mind-altering substances” at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The PM even used the scandal to fend off an inquiry about Britain’s failure to invest in business from former minister Michael Meacher.

“I can only conclude that the right honourable gentleman, too, has been on a night out on the town with Rev Flowers and that the mind-altering substances have taken effect,” he said.

Labour’s Ed Balls angrily demanded to know whether Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne had taken cocaine after the insult.

“Have you taken cocaine?” the Shadow Chancellor shouted across the Commons Chamber. “I’ve not.”

Mr Cameron has refused to say whether he has taken cocaine in the past.

And his spokesman said afterward: “I’m not discussing things like that.”

The PM was forced to apologise after Michael Meacher appealed to the Commons Speaker John Bercow.

Mr Cameron claimed: “I tried to answer with the point about inward investment into Britain.

"I made a light-hearted remark—if it caused any offence, I will happily withdraw it.

“I think it is very important that we can have a little bit of light-hearted banter, and a sense of humour on all sides.”