Kate Osamor's son Ishmael has a disappointing drug history – but let's not pretend other MPs are the pinnacle of virtue either

The idea that John Bercow, who could face investigation for historical claims of bullying within the Commons itself retains the capacity to pass judgement on Osamor, leaves a pretty rank taste in the mouth

Kate Osamor's son's career so far makes far from a perfect template, but far from the worst. He is a still-young man who has apologised and faced the law for a complicated crime (Getty)

There are some issues which are so nuanced that it feels pretty impossible to form a binary opinion, but because everyone involved or spectating is partisan, they do.

The case of Ishmael Osamor feels a bit like that. Osamor, 29, is the son of Labour MP and shadow international development secretary, Kate Osamor. He has resigned as a Labour councillor for Haringey following his conviction for possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, for which he has been sentenced to a two-year community order and 20 days’ rehabilitation. The drugs were found on Osamor at Bestival last year. There have since been calls for MP Kate Osamor to sack him as her senior communications officer.

There is a lot to unpack here. Speaker John Bercow has responded to Tory MP Simon Hoare’s barely-veiled call for Osamor to lose his parliamentary pass by saying that he will “deal with it sensibly”. He also reminded Hoare that such matters should be raised privately.

Hoare’s knee-jerk “drugs are a scourge” line doesn’t feel especially useful. Drugs certainly can and do damage communities, but a large part of that damage is due to the fact that because certain drugs are illegal, their trade and use is completely unregulated. Every year it is pointed out that festival drug taking would be vastly safer if it was accepted as a given, and measures were in place to ensure it could be carried out safely, rather than treated as criminal. Public figures exponentially more senior than Osamor have been involved in drug-taking, and where there is wealth and privilege, so there is often a blind eye or “boys will be boys”-esque shrug at their behaviour.

Osamor was carrying a *lot* of drugs. The judge accepted his claim that he and his friends had clubbed together to buy the £2500 worth of cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine and cannabis, and had planned to use it amongst themselves. Whether one agrees with the law or not, he did break it, and his barrister reportedly told the judge that Osamor knew he was “very lucky” not to receive a harsher punishment. The judge commented that during his unpaid work, Osamor would have the chance to rub shoulders with “many who have serious addiction and drugs problems who will have had none of the opportunities he has had”. By comparison, to many who are caught in Haringey, where he served as councillor, Osamor might be counted as “lucky” to get off lightly, but then, luck is relative.

Often, it isn’t really a question of who is taking drugs. People of all genders, races, backgrounds and professions do, with most of the terrible cost hidden deep in the supply chain. The question is who gets caught. As a black man, Osamor is six times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white man. David Cameron is a regular attendee at Wilderness Festival (as a garden variety, middle-class, leftie who is also partial, I am acutely aware of this). It seems unlikely that the ex-PM’s bags get checked especially rigorously when he rocks up to boutique camping.

Likewise, the attention paid to and treatment meted out for offences in parliament often appear to depend a great deal on background and personal clout. The idea that John Bercow, who could face investigation for historical claims of bullying within the Commons itself retains the capacity to pass judgement on Osamor, leaves a pretty rank taste in the mouth. Osamor has already been given a two-month community order and 20 days of rehabilitation; his dues have been counted and will be paid.

The second element of this story which has garnered much attention is that of Osamor’s employment. Parliament is rife with bad behaviour and conflicts of interests of all sorts, and the issue of nepotism, which has been conflated with Osamor’s drugs charges time and again, is separate but important. No, it is also not a great look that he failed to declare to Commons’ authorities that he was an elected councillor in the borough of Haringey. But his selection to that council – like his employment in the House of Commons – was not his solely his doing. If there is to be a discussion about this, which would be totally fair, it should extend far beyond the Osamors.

In 2020, MPs are to be banned from employing relatives with public money. This measure hasn’t been put in place “just in case”, it is because this happens all the time. As of last year, one in five MPs employed a member of their family. This happens on both sides of the political divide, with family members being paid on average £5,600 more than other members of staff. An oft-cited excuse is that family members are more likely to go “above and beyond”, and work longer hours.

While Osamar’s employment by his MP mother might justifiably feel like an irritating or unjust allocation of the public purse, he is apparently good at his job, and works hard for his just above average £30,000-£35,000 salary. This is absolutely not true of everyone. Boris Johnson, for example, is terrible at lots of things (being foreign secretary springs to mind), but has been paid handsomely irrespective of devastating slip-ups and unprofessional and damaging behaviour. He earns £275,000 per year for his Daily Telegraph column, which though it is not public money, puts him – as an MP – in a tricky position when it comes to commenting on what constitutes a fair wage.

Conflicts of interest and instances of hypocrisy are everywhere, and get about as stupid as you can imagine. Sir Michael Fallon, who resigned his post as defence secretary following allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour, recently accepted a £788 per hour job advising Saudi investors. Johnson accepted a £14,000 trip to Saudi Arabia days before the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Tory MP and drugs minister Victoria Atkin, who has opposed the decriminalisation of drugs, has come under fire since it was revealed that her husband has a 45-acre cannabis farm.

Again and again, in the run up to the most significant and impactful political decision the country has faced in decades, MPs lied to the public to further their cause.

Osamor’s career so far makes far from a perfect template, but far from the worst. He is a still-young man who has apologised and faced the law for a complicated crime. Many would have faced harsher punishment, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. And his employment by his mother is absolutely problematic, but anyone who grandstands about that had better spare some attention to the many more serious conflicts of interest hiding – and not hiding – about the the House of Commons.