MPs call for action on 'most extraordinary horror' of needle spiking

“Will something terrible have to happen” before action is taken to curb rising reports of both drink and needle spiking, MPs have asked.

A cross-party group of MPs yesterday debated whether there should be a legal requirement for clubs to search guests on entry, following an online petition that has gained more than 170,000 signatures.

Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower, opened the debate. She said: “It is becoming a craze, a trend and it needs to be taken seriously by everyone. Will we have to wait for something terrible to happen before making a change?”

She added: “What will happen when the media interest dies down? It’s not good enough for this to be in the hands of some nightclub owners. This needs a realisation from government that something has to be done. I’m aware lots of clubs have extra security on the floors of nightclubs so surely it is not beyond the financial capability of the owners to invest in security checks becoming a permanent feature across all clubs in the UK.”

The MPs heard that police in Nottinghamshire were investigating 15 suspected incidents of spiking ‘with something sharp’ in the last week. Meanwhile the National Police Chiefs’ Council has said there were 198 reports of drink spiking and 56 confirmed reports of injection incidents between 1 September and 23 October this year.

There were calls for such offences to be prioritised and for punishments to be strengthened.

Steve Baker, Conservative MP for Wycombe, said: “To inject a person against their will should be treated as a grave assault, one of the most serious assaults. Not only [is it] against their will but with a substance unknown, with the purpose of intoxicating them, presumably, ordinarily, with a view towards raping them. It’s the most extraordinary horror yet... presumably the police don’t always take it as seriously as they might.”

Matt Western, Labour MP for Warwick & Leamington, added that the authorities should make tackling the crime as much of a priority as fighting terrorism.

Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley added: “Spiking is by no means a new thing, in 2019 a BBC investigation uncovered 2,600 reports of drink spiking to police in England and Wales over the previous four years – this will be a tiny fraction.

“This new phenomenon, this new issue, which the intervention of a needle, has been frightening. This needs to carry a more severe punishment. To me carrying into a nightclub a drug to put into someone’s drink or to inject them, which seems harrowing, that’s like carrying a knife, that is carrying a weapon, the only aim is to harm.”

Photo: Shutterstock / Radyukov Dima