• SO the Labour Party leader and MP for Holborn and St Pancras has given his first major speech of the year.

When pressed on the Mayor of London’s reported initiative to trial a pilot scheme to stop prosecutions of young people found with small quantities of cannabis, Sir Keir Starmer flatly refused to support Sadiq Khan in his brave plan.

The initiative is reportedly aiming to divert children and young people from being criminalised, which can, in turn, make young people face more obstacles and exclusion.

Public health and academic research supports Sadiq Khan’s pilot scheme. Why is Sir Keir against all the evidence? Why is he unilaterally deciding policy and why is his judgment here so regressive?

A recent survey suggests six in 10 Britons believe criminalising drugs is futile, which is a significant majority of the public; why is Sir Keir so seemingly at odds with the British public?

You’d think he’d learnt nothing from the serious violence that affects young people in his constituency and back yard – Camden Town – effectively Europe’s biggest drug market, a market our children never asked to be born next to.

Sir Keir’s position, by proxy, dismisses links between drugs illegality and violence, highlighted in the recent serious youth violence report from Camden Council.

It’s high time the council and police take a bold step in the opposite direction, treating substance abuse only as a public health issue rather than a criminal one; and create and launch a decriminalised zone within Camden Town. Lead the way, not follow the same old beaten path to nowhere.

ELAINE DONNELLON
Address supplied