METROPOLITAN Police claims that officers conducted drug swabs on clubbers in east London to “support women’s safety” have been branded “laughable” by campaigners. 

The force prompted outrage earlier this week after it posted a video on Twitter showing officers randomly testing people for drugs outside clubs in Shoreditch. 

Responding to the backlash and calls to explain the legal grounds of conducting the tests, the Met said the operation was carried out as part of “a week of action supporting women’s safety,” in which “one woman was arrested.” 

“We know there is an inextricable link between Class A drugs and serious crime and violence on the streets of London,” the Met said. “Shoreditch has been a hotspot for these kinds of offences.”

The force said the searches were carried out with the co-operation of two venues as a condition of entry.

The statement added that it was made clear to clubbers that the swabs were voluntary. 

But campaigners today slammed the operation as a “PR stunt” and “disastrous waste of time.” 

“The cynical attempt by the Met to claim that this is a policy to protect women’s safety is laughable,” Kat Hobbs from policing monitoring group Netpol said.

“If the Met were in any way serious about protecting women’s safety, they would deal with the sexism and racism endemic among their officers.”

Black and Asian Lawyers for Justice vice-chair Lee Jasper told the Morning Star: “What we’re seeing is an attempt by the Metropolitan Police to create a series of meaningless PR gestures that are supposed to respond to the crisis of confidence [in the police] among women in London.”

Mr Jasper also warned the operation could be a “foretaste” of what’s to come under plans to massively expand police powers in the government’s new Policing Bill.

“It would be the tip of a very large iceberg in which we could see many more draconian policy initiatives being pushed by the Home Office and [Home Secretary] Priti Patel.”

Drug experts also raised concerns that such tests could be more harmful than helpful. 

Andre Gomes of the drug reform charity Release told LBC radio: “When people see police officers coming to search [them] they’re either going to dash them or you’re going to consume them.

“We call that preloading because people take a lot of their substances before going into a certain space or before having a police interaction so that they can avoid any criminal charges.”

“That raises the drug-related harm massively, you’re consuming what’s probably your supply for the night.”