Sir Keir Starmer has vowed not to stand in the way of drug consumption rooms in Scotland if he becomes prime minister.
The Labour leader promised he would “respect” the decision of the Scottish Parliament if it decides to back the introduction of the facilities.
Campaigners say the centres – where people can inject drugs under supervision – are needed to tackle the drug deaths crisis in Scotland.
Recent figures show there were 62 drug deaths in Aberdeen – a rise of 10% – which was a new record for the city when the details were published last summer.
Aberdeen’s record drug deaths could spiral even further out of control as the cost of living crisis hits the most vulnerable, according to charity leaders at the time.
A significant breakthrough
Drug laws are decided at Westminster and Sir Keir previously ruled out any relaxation if he becomes prime minister.
In an interview, Sir Keir said: “As prime minister, I would have respect for the Scottish Parliament and where there’s a decision for the Scottish Parliament to rightly make, I would have respect for them.”
Sir Keir said he is aligned with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
He said: “You will not find a wafer between me and Anas on this.
“We work together as partners and I’m certainly not in the business of trampling on issues that are for the Scottish Parliament.
“But I am very, very concerned – and we’ll work with Anas and others – to ensure that we get to the underlying issues, the decade of appalling failure under the SNP.
“We’re talking about the tail end of this after ten years of failure. I think we have to get to the fundamentals of this.”
An embarrassing split
Last year, Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper tried to distance herself from MSPs at Holyrood who were hoping to pave the way for overdose prevention centres.
It emerged party bosses in London ignored correspondence from their Scottish counterparts for months, while Ms Cooper refused to set out her own position.
Scottish Labour was also criticised ahead of the last Holyrood election for leaving drug decriminalisation out of their manifesto, despite adopting it as an official policy five months earlier.
It came after Sir Keir repeatedly refused to back a relaxation and said Tory policy on the issue was “roughly right”.
The Scottish Government is currently working “to examine how a safer drug consumption facility could operate within the existing legal framework, focusing on how any such facility could operate and be policed”.
But the UK Government remains opposed to the centres and has said a “range of crimes” would be committed by both service users and staff in the course of using such facilities.
Conversation