A Tory MP who has twice fallen victim to spiking is pushing the Government to bring in tougher punishments for offenders.
Mims Davies said she felt there was cross-party support on the issue and she'd be pushing for change.
Speaking to GB News, about whether it needs to be made a specific criminal offence, the MP for Mid-Sussex said: “I was working on some of that at the Home Office, I know there's still work going on there and believe me, I'm still feeding very strongly into that.
Mims Davies said there was support across the House of Commons to tackle spiking
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"It's strong across parties that we want something done. I think they are looking at the right way of doing it. There are ways of proceeding – not with a specific offence, but I do think for young people there needs to be this understanding that this has a specific impact, and linking that to the offence. I think that has real merit.
"So, I'm watching this closely and I'd like to see it progress. I was recently supporting many colleagues from across the House at the debate on this and I think there's still work to do in this area.”
Opening up her own experiences of being spiked she told Gloria De Piero: “I was on an ordinary night out, and I think that's what happens for many people – it's only when they look back and piece things together, they realise something untoward has happened. But I actually had two incidents.
“On one occasion I found a black tablet in the bottom of a glass. I'd been standing in a dark part of a bar where there was music. You're sort of talking to somebody and holding your drinks, chatting. I happened to go out into the lighter part of the bar and found something in the bottom of my glass and I just thought, ‘ohh, what's that?' and threw it away.
“It was only afterwards, and I’d tasted it and thought, oh, it tastes weird. I changed my glass, and it was about 10 minutes later something clicked and I thought, my goodness, what was that?
“But a few years before I totally blacked out and had a totally different experience, which I look back at now, where I had to be carried home, and realise they were two very different events.”
Revealing how many other victims have contacted her about their own experiences she continued: “I've had people from up and down the country of all different ages and backgrounds; either it's happened to their children or it's happened to them.
“It's only when women start to talk about it that you realise what danger you could have been in, and that's what happened to me.
“I would urge anybody who's had any kind of experience like this to go to the police. Above all: if you see something in your glass that you're not expecting, do not just chuck it away and think nothing of it, which I did, which meant we couldn't check what it was. But thank you to everyone who's come forward and shared their experience with me.”
Mims Davies said hit was hard being a single mum while in Parliament
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Meanwhile Davies also opened up on the challenges of being an MP, which she juggles with being a single mum to two young children.
She said: “I honestly think it's the most amazing experience and I thank my constituents and all the people I've ever had the ability to represent, and I always do my best. But if you have got a fault line, if there is an issue in your world, if there's a fragility – it will be found. And having 36 weeks a year in London, and you've got a full on weekends, you know, occasionally I'll pop in and go, 'Hi, I'm still here! I’m still your mother! I'll see you in a few hours!'. It's challenging.
"But it's the most amazing thing, because I recently caught up with some American politicians – they couldn't believe how available and local we are.
"We have to hold that very, very preciously, because it's really important that people know that we get it. I think at the moment it would be really easy for people to think we don't.”
Outlining how she has changed her security in the wake of recent attacks on MPs she added: “I think everybody has. I don't pre-advertise surgeries, I do much more limited drop-ins. I was doing a surgery when we lost Jo Cox.
"I have staff like everyone else, and a duty of care to them. So, we can't do this job without our staff, and we need to look after them and protect them, and we have to take as many safety precautions as possible. I want to continue to do the job in a locally connected way. That's why we're here.”
The full interview is broadcast this Sunday from 6pm on Gloria Meets on GB News
