Boris on drugs: I took cocaine but it had no effect on me

In a characteristically colourful interview, Boris Johnson has confessed to incompetently snorting cocaine, and admitted he finds Cherie Blair sexually enticing.

Speaking to former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan in GQ magazine, Mr Johnson,42, said of the cocaine episode: "I tried it at university and I remember it vividly. It achieved no pharmacological psychotropic or any other effect on me whatsoever."

It is not the first time that the shadow education minister has admitted trying cocaine. He had previously said while appearing in the television show Have I Got News For You "I think I was once given cocaine but I sneezed and so it did not go up my nose. In fact, I may have been doing icing sugar."

Asked in the GQ interview whether any of the Class A drug went up his nose despite the sneeze, Mr Johnson responded " It must have done, oh yes, but it didn't do much for me I can tell you."

He was also asked whether he had inhaled cannabis. " There was a period before university when I had quite a few (joints). But, funnily enough, not much at university. It was jolly nice. But apparently it is very different these days, much stronger. I have become very illiberal about it. I don't want my kids to take drugs", said the MP who was sacked from a front-bench post by then leader Michael Howard after having an extra-marital affair exposed in Sunday paper.

Asked by Mr Morgan whether he could imagine having sex with the Prime Minister's wife, he said " I could, yeah. No, don't put that in! God! Not me."

Mr Johnson initially faced questions about drugs after a biography of David Cameron written by journalists Francis Elliott and James Hanning revealed that the Conservative leader was caught smoking cannabis aged 15 while at Eton. A Conservative party spokesman said at the time that it was all a long time, almost 25 years, ago. He said "David has always maintained politicians have a right to a private life before they come into politics."

Mr Johnson, in his public life, has repeatedly been in the media for making controversial remarks on a variety of subjects ranging from the people of Liverpool to school dinners.

He said of Liverpudlians that they relished having a victim culture and had quite liked "wallowing" in grief after the beheading of hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq.

Manchester United fans subsequently sang "There is only one Boris Johnson" during matches against Liverpool and Everton but he was forced to go to Liverpool by the Tory party hierachy and make an apology which, of course, took place with dozens of journalists and TV cameras present, leading to even more publicity for Boris.

Following that, he made comments which were said to have enraged the people of Portsmouth, who he said were fat and took drugs, Papua New Guinea, who he implied were cannibals, and Jamie Oliver, saying he would kick out his "healthy" school meals. Each "gaffe" led to acres of media coverage.

In his latest interview, Mr Johnson told GQ "I love Norwich, and Portsmouth and Liverpool. It's all nonsense. I said about Portsmouth that there was too much drugs, obesity and underachievement. And there it is. It's a statistical fact. Why shouldn't I be allowed to say that?"

Tories and drugs

David Cameron

The Tory leader was alleged in a biography last year to have smoked cannabis at the age of 15, at Eton. According to the book he confessed and was grounded. Some of the other boys caught with him were expelled. When the story came out a spokesman said it all happened a long time ago.

George Osborne

The shadow chancellor and Mr Cameron's chum was pictured in Sunday papers at the age of 22 with Natalie Rowe, 42, a former prostitute and what was claimed to be drugs paraphenalia. Mr Osborne, 34, said "The allegations are completely untrue and dredging up a photo when I was 22 years old is pretty desperate stuff."

Lord Lambton

The MP for Berwick was photographed in bed with two prostitutes while smoking marijuana in May 1973. Documents released 30 years after the scandal revealed he told an MI5 official he had turned to debauchery - and gardening - because of the futility of his job.