Streatham MP Chuka Umunna has admitted to previously smoking marijuana, but said people were no longer bothered if politicians had taken the drug.

Mr Umunna, shadow Minister for Business, said he was “not proud” of smoking the class B illegal drug, adding it was not “news any more, to be honest”.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said he took the drug while working in the music industry and the experience had put him off a a career as a DJ.

He added he had never taken anything “beyond marijuana”.

He said: “That [the music] industry is rife with it. That was a [part] of the industry I found unattractive.”

He also told the paper his dad - who arrived in England with “a suitcase and no money” but became a successful businessman - was killed in a car crash in Nigeria when he returned to seek election as governor of the state where he was born.

Mr Umunna, who was 13 at the time of his father's death, implied it may not have been an accident.

He said: “I don’t want to go into it, but there was a lot of speculation in Nigeria.

“Things in Nigeria don’t operate like here. It’s not like you’re going to get an official post-mortem or a proper police investigation.”

He said his father’s death as “horrible” but added: “I don’t think I’d be sitting [here] were it not for him.”

He has not returned to Nigeria since his father’s funeral but is planning a trip next year.

Last week, Mr Umunna hit national headlines after suggesting gang members should redirect their “entrepreneurial skills”, into legitimate business enterprises.