Charles Falconer has leapt to the defence of Rosie Duffield - saying her voice must be heard.
Labour and Keir Starmer were accused of having a women problem after Duffield was shouted down in a recent Parliamentary debate on trans-rights.
Reflecting on the row, the Labour grandee told Gloria De Piero: “People shouldn't have shouted at Rosie Duffield. She is expressing a very legitimate view about women not feeling safe and people should not be shouting.
Lord Falconer joined Gloria De Piero on GB News.
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"We have to make sure women who feel what Rosie Duffield feels, see that she’s not a lone voice. She's expressing a very strongly felt view, and that view has got to not just be accommodated, but it's got to be reflected in the changes in the law that are made.”
Lord Falconer, who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under Tony Blair, also told GB News about a commission he is leading in London for the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, on drug reforms.
He said it was obvious the ongoing war on drugs had failed and suggested it might be time to think about legalising cannabis.
He said: “The London Drug Commission is a body set up by the mayor. We're independent, we're operating on the basis of the evidence and we're looking to see what recommendations we should make about the way that the health service deals with drug issues and the way that the law deals with drug issues.
"This means not just what the courts do, but also if the framework of the law should be changed, and we're focusing in particular on cannabis.
“Over 30 or 40 years there's been a quote, ‘war on drugs’. And the consequence of the war on drugs is a lot of people have become addicted to a whole variety of drugs. They've died on very many occasions. The war has manifestly failed.
"I was in charge of the justice system between 2003 and 2007. We were heavily engaged in the war on drugs. What was the consequence? A billion dollar industry was placed in the hands of criminals. They exploited lots and lots of people, not just the users.”
Outlining how things might change he said: “Would it be better if it became a health problem, not a criminal justice problem? What about possibly regulating the sorts of cannabis that are on sale? I've reached no conclusions in relation to this.
"The effect of decriminalising is that the number of people who use cannabis goes up. We need to look at the evidence in relation to this, and I've got no conclusions. But we need to look at it because the one thing I think everybody agrees on is that the war has failed.”
One of Lord Falconer’s other main passions is to champion the right to assist dying.
Commenting on how he sees the current debate he told GB News: “It feels like it's stuck. Many countries have made the change. We will not make the change primarily because very few of our politicians came into politics to deal with assisted dying.
"They came in for other reasons, but they don't want to offend some vested interests, like the Church in their constituency. And they just will not be brave enough to make the change. It’s absolutely awful that a combination of politicians and the Church of England stop this.”
Explaining why he was so passionate about this he continued: “It’s seeing people where the end is near, where they feel their time has come, often, they've said goodbye to those that they love and they've turned their face to the wall.
"They so desperately want the end and we're not entitled as a matter of law to make sure it's given. If you try to kill your yourself, many people do it badly.
"It's absolutely awful that that's the way we deal with it. And you know who's the most prominent group of people against it?
"It’s the Bishops and the Archbishops, who are well represented in the House of Lords. It's just so wrong.”
Lord Falconer also said he could not wait for the House of Lords to be abolished.
GB News
Turning to the House of Lords, Lord Falconer said he can’t wait to see it abolished.
He said: “I'm very much looking forward to it being abolished and replaced by something that is elected. Look at the Government at the moment, it's doing a lot of very difficult things.
"The Lords often stands up to the Commons but it can't stand up for very long because who on earth is going to pay attention to a body which is made-up either people like me who are a flatmate of Tony Blair.
"Who is going to stand up to people who are, as it were, the great, great, great, great, great grandchildren of Charles II’s mistresses and that's why they're there.
“We are not a body that has any legitimacy when it comes to standing up to an elected house. So I'm looking forward to it. It's about time. And good for Keir Starmer for saying he's going to do it and do it early because if you don't do it early, you'll never do it.”
Meanwhile Lord Falconer who famously lost five stone between 2012 and 2014 by only eating apples and drinking diet coke during the day - says he is still on that diet now!
He said: “I'm still on it, yeah. I’ve put on weight since 2014, but in 2012 I was obese, unhealthy, unrestrained, and eating with no real discipline. It was a bad example and you know, more selfishly bad for me.”
