An MP has happily admitted taking drugs as she joined a ‘cannabis tea party’ to legalise medicinal marijuana.

Lib Dem Layla Moran laughed as she replied “yes, I went to university!”, adding: “I did inhale, yes I did.”

“I don’t any more, I’m a grown up now, but for god’s sake,” the 35-year-old said. Teasing Theresa May she joked: “I’ve never run in a wheat field, that I can say.”

The new MP joined protesters who scoffed cannabis-infused scones and tea yards from police outside parliament, surrounded by hemp plants and the smell of weed.

Labour MP Paul Flynn, left, and Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, right (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)
Campaigner smoking cannabis in parliament square

Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and Paul Flynn - whose formal bid to legalise medicinal cannabis was introduced to parliament today - also joined the demo backed by the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Ms Moran, 35, said one of her best friends died of MS and went through “extraordinary pain”.

Although the MPs declined to eat cannabis themselves Ms Moran added: “Most people my age would not blink an eye at me trying to back a campaign like this. They’d be like ‘duh, in fact, isn’t it legal already?’, because they hear about it in Colorado and things like that.

A man smokes a cannabis cigarette at a legalise cannabis tea party outside the Houses of Parliament
Layla Moran MP joined a ‘cannabis tea party’ (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)
Sign at cannabis protest outside parliament
Campaigner for legalising cannabis

“I think it’s a bit of a no-brainer, I’m fairly certain I’m on the right side of history here and in 20 years we’ll be ‘what was that all about, why did we have to campaign so hard to get it?’.”

Mr Flynn branded government policy - which threatens people possessing cannabis with five years’ jail - “idiotic” adding: “It’s political cowardice.

Cannabis campaigners gathered outside parliament

“They’re afraid of being accused to going to pot. I’m afraid governments get brownie points for appearing to act tough.”

Ms Antoniazzi told protesters: “It is criminal to be honest with you and we have to move forward.

“If you are in pain you deserve to have something that will make your life better.”

Paul Flynn MP at the 'cannabis tea party'

Protest organiser Clark French, who has MS, said he had “no choice but to break the law” and branded government policy an “absolute disgrace”.

Parkinson’s sufferer Ian Frizell, 56, filmed himself vaping cannabis to reduce his tremors in a video that has been seen a million times on YouTube.

The former IT consultant from Norfolk, who joined protesters at the demo, said he has taken the drug almost daily for more than two years.

He claimed cannabis was a “wonder drug” adding: “They’re looking at the wrong evidence and skewed evidence.”