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Conservative leadership contender Rory Stewart could be banned from entering the United States after he admitted smoking opium at a wedding party in Iran, lawyers have said.
Immigration lawyers told the Daily Telegraph that Mr Stewart – whose leadership campaign has gathered momentum with his frank admissions about the state of the Tory Party – could have fallen foul of America’s 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.
Jason Sullivan, an immigration lawyer in New Hampshire, told the paper: “Every foreign national seeking to enter the United States of America must complete a visa application, which specifically asks about the applicant’s prior drug abuse and whether the applicant has ever violated a law relating to controlled substances anywhere in the world.
“An admission to prior use of opium will likely render Mr Stewart inadmissible to the United States of America.”
However, New York immigration lawyer Anastasia Tonello pointed out celebrities such as Nigella Lawson have not been denied entry to the US following admissions over drug use.
Mr Stewart apologised for smoking the class-A drug on Thursday, acknowledging it was against the law in Iran when he took it.
Mr Stewart, the international development secretary, said: “I think it was a very stupid mistake and I did it 15 years ago, and I actually went on in Iran to see the damage that opium was doing to communities.
“I’ve seen it as a prisons minister. It was 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 around the room and I smoked it – I shouldn’t have done, I was wrong.”
The 46-year-old MP for Penrith and The Border, who is currently listed by Coral as 12/1 to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister, launched his leadership bid in an interview with The Spectator last month.
He has been scathing of those who support a no-deal Brexit, saying it would be “a huge mistake, damaging, unnecessary, and I think also dishonest”.
Mr Stewart’s campaign has been endorsed by Sir Nicholas Soames, grandson of Sir Winston Churchill.
