A Tory leadership candidate has told Sky News he made a "very stupid mistake" to smoke opium while travelling in Iran.

Rory Stewart admitted it was against the law when he tried the drug abroad, which is a treated as a Class A in Britain.

The international development secretary confessed in an interview with the Daily Telegraph to taking a puff on an opium pipe 15 years ago at a wedding.

"I thought 'this is going be a very strange afternoon to walk'," he recalled.

Image: The MP admitted smoking opium, a drug that is obtained from some poppies. File pic

"But it may be that the family was so poor they put very little opium in the pipe."


Having served as a governor in Iraq during the war there, Mr Stewart apologised for smoking the drug.

"I actually went on in Iran to see the damage that opium is doing to communities," he told Sky News.

"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 round this pipe and I smoked it.

"I was at a wedding...I shouldn't have done it, I was wrong".



Sky's @adamboultonSKY , calls out @RoryStewartUK for using opium.



Read more on the Tory leadership race here: https://t.co/FuXEnO8baf pic.twitter.com/i8toral4u5 — Sky News Politics (@SkyNewsPolitics) May 30, 2019

"I shouldn't have done it, it was wrong."

Mr Stewart is an underdog in the Tory leadership race, having only won the public support of two Tory MPs so far.

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Prime Minister Theresa May will stand down as leader of her party on 7 June, paving the way for an official contest between a growing field of candidates.