David Cameron is being haunted by a renewed bout of speculation about his possible use of cocaine, triggered by last week’s reports that he smoked cannabis at Eton. Tabloid newspapers have dispatched investigators to try to pin down the truth of persistent Westminster rumours that he has used the Class A drug. Stories surfaced in the Sunday papers raising questions about Mr Cameron’s possible link to cocaine without actually answering them.

The drug issue dogged Mr Cameron’s party leadership campaign in 2005, but although he won, his failure to deny the rumours meant that they have lingered on ever since.

The Independent on Sunday ran a double-page feature titled “Cannabis, cocaine and the court of Cameron”, repeating speculation that he might have taken drugs when he was director of communications at Carlton Television or even when he was a Home Office adviser under the last Tory Government.

The Mail on Sunday republished an old story about how David Ruffley, a Conservative MP, stopped a colleague formally asking Mr Cameron during his leadership bid whether or not he had taken drugs. Mr Cameron was the only leadership contender not to be asked the question by MPs, and when it was sprung on him in a Channel 4 interview his response did not settle the issue.

The story about Mr Cameron smoking cannabis at school was made in a forthcoming biography by Francis Elliott and James Hanning. The journalists failed to find evidence that he used cocaine, concluding that he either abstained or was very circumspect.

Mr Cameron refused to deny the cannabis story, admitting that he made mistakes when he was young but insisting he had a right to a private life before he was involved in politics.

Although the Government publicly backed Mr Cameron’s right to privacy, Kitty Ussher, a Labour MP and ministerial aide, used it to reopen the cocaine question, telling BBC Radio: “I suspect the real reason he is not commenting is because he has refused to deny much more serious allegations about hard drug use and doesn’t want to come clean about that.”

Lord Oakeshott, a Liberal Democrat peer, said: “David Cameron must tell us when he stopped taking illegal drugs, not hide behind the soundbite.”

Mr Cameron survived the cannabis allegations unscathed, and with his credibility possibly enhanced in the minds of younger voters. However, many in Westminster believe that the drug question could yet inflict heavy damage. The nightmare scenario for the Conservatives is if any strong evidence of cocaine use emerges during the heat and frenzy of a general election campaign, turning off voters just before they go to the polls. Many observers believe that Mr Cameron would be better served either by denying the rumours outright or coming clean now, potentially three years before an election.

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, who is a close friend of Mr Cameron, has also been at the centre of allegations about cocaine use when a former prostitute claimed she saw him snorting the drug. However, he killed off the story by issuing an outright denial.

Mr Cameron’s political enemies — including those in his own party — have seized on the allegations by accusing him and his allies of being soft on drugs. They note that in the past Mr Cameron has supported relaxing the drugs laws, although now he has a more hardline attitude.

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