Rory Stewart’s jaw-dropping medicine admission and savage Boris Johnson feud

Rory Stewart once admitted he smoked opium in what he described as a “stupid mistake” while standing to be the leader of the Conservative party – and would-be Prime Minister.

Now a podcaster and guest presenter on tonight’s Channel 4 election night coverage, Rory has had a very interesting career over the years – and a big feud with Boris Johnson.

The former politician previously worked as a diplomat and once admitted his career resembles that of a spy. He said smoked the drug in Iran at a wedding.

He claimed the substance, used as a basis of heroin and a Class A or B drug in the UK, “had no effect” on him “because I was walking 25-30 miles a day”.

Mr Stewart took a break from the Foreign Service to spend 21 months walking across Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal, staying in 500 village houses along the way.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “The opium pipe was passed around at a wedding.

“I thought – this is going be a very strange afternoon to walk – but it may be that the family was so poor they put very little opium in the pipe.”

He added to Sky News: “I think it was a very stupid mistake.

“I did it 15 years ago, and I actually went on in Iran to see the damage opium was doing to communities. I’ve seen it as a prisons minister. It’s 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 round the room and I smoked it.

“I shouldn’t have done it. It was wrong.”

Mr Stewart – whose real name is Rod Stewart – emerged as the surprise star of the 2019 Tory leadership contest after travelling the country filming videos talking to the public, although he lost out to rival Boris Johnson.

The Hong Kong-born Old Etonian, who delivered his own child, once admitted his career “gives the appearance” he was a spy.

After a career as a diplomat in the Foreign Office, the 51-year-old was elected MP for Penrith and the Border in 2010 and joined the government in 2015. He wasted no time after being promoted to the Cabinet in May 2019, but his leadership pitch – backing then-PM Theresa May’s Brexit deal and saying it might even be worth splitting the party for – made him wildly unpopular among Tory Brexiteers.

He later branded Brexiteer rivals “snake oil salesmen” and ruled out a No Deal Brexit – and was beaten by Boris Johnson, who moved into Downing Street in July 2019.

In September that year, Rory became one of 21 Tory MPs to have the whip stripped from them when they rebelled against the government’s Brexit instructions. Stewart sat as an independent before announcing his resignation in October.

He did so by reading aloud in the House of Commons a letter written by Boris’ old Eton housemaster, which described Johnson as being guilty of “a gross failure of responsibility”.

Since his career in parliament, Stewart has become a successful podcaster, co-hosting The Rest Is Politics with former Blair spin doctor Alastair Campbell.