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Passports to be removed from illegal drug users in crime crackdown, Boris Johnson says

Passports to be removed from illegal drug users in crime crackdown, Boris Johnson says

Boris Johnson is set to launch a ten-year plan to combat drug-related crime which will involve removing passports and driving licences from offenders.

The government is set to make a number of crime announcements in the coming weeks which will include a crackdown on gangs and prison reforms to reduce reoffending rates by helping inmates find work.

The overhaul of crime laws will include tougher prison sentences for dealers, night-time curfews and football-style travel bans.

As part of a wider raft of measures to combat crime, the Prime Minister said pestering women in the street or in pubs could also be outlawed in a bid to combat sexual harassment in public.

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He told The Sun: “Drugs are driving a lot of misery and we can fix it. They’re not going to make you happier. They’re not going to make you more successful. They’re not going to make you cooler. They’re bad news.”

The initiative includes action on breaking up County Lines gangs who exploit children and increasing funding to 50 local authorities worst-hit by drug-related crime.

These include Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Liverpool and Hull among others.

Mr Johnson added: “Most of the crime driven by drugs is generated by 300,000 heroin and crack cocaine users – tragic people who have lost their way in life. You can lock them up again and again and we do but they come out again and reoffend so we have to rehabilitate them...

“The country is ­littered with victims of what’s happened. We are going to look at new ways of penalising them. Things that will actually interfere with their lives so we will look at taking away passports and driving licences.”

The Prime Minister also told the paper that public sexual harassment could be outlawed in wake of the murder of Sarah Everard.

The conviction rate for rape and serious sexual offences could also be doubled, the Prime Minister added.

It comes after Mr Johnson blocked plans for smoking outside pubs to be banned after they were proposed by health secretary Sajid Javid, according to reports.

Smoking inside pubs and restaurants was banned by Tony Blair’s government in 2007, though the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has been mulling an extension of the policy in recent months.

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