AN MP has spoken of the shocking moment a tearful father said his son wanted to be a drug dealer when he was older.

Robbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, shared the story as part of a video for the Blue Collar Conservative conference which is running throughout this week, and is being streamed online. Tonight's focus was on crime.

Mr Moore said: "Across the constituency we have big challenges, not only to do with crime, but drug crime, gang-related crime and it is impacting residents, individuals, people in their homes across the constituency, but also businesses.

"I think back to a meeting which I had with a dad who came in to one of my zoom calls.

"He said to me, in tears, that his 13-year-old son had come home from interacting with his mates and said 'look dad, I know exactly what I want to be when I'm older, and that is a drug dealer'. 

"That just illustrates the real challenge that we have and this 13-year-old wanted to be a drug dealer because he knows that he might earn lots of money. 

"So there's a real issue to do with aspiration and raising that aspiration, not only here in Keighley, but in other places like this across the country."

He said the Conservative Party needed to show that it will not tolerate issues like anti-social behaviour and drug dealing.

"We've got to deal with - across community, across education sectors, across the police forces - dealing with county lines, to really crack down and deal with these issues," he said.

The Blue Collar Conservative group was launched last year, aimed at starting a conversation to develop policies for the Conservative party in a post-Brexit Britain

In a Q&A session as part of tonight's conference, Tatton MP Esther McVey, who spearheads the Blue Collar Conservative movement, said of the situation Mr Moore highlighted: "That should be quite clear that isn't a path to follow, there are consequences to that, there are lives that you are shattering and there will be a long sentence and there won't be cash at the end of the journey for you."

Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, added: "It's sad isn't it when that's people's aspiration, to be a drug dealer, but they may be on a poor estate, they might look at somebody who's driving a flash car or whatever and they think 'I want some of that, what do they do?' - that's what they're doing.

"The best way to counter that is actually for that person to be in prison for a long period of time, to have all of their assets confiscated off them, so there isn't anything there for them to aspire to because they've got no freedom, no money, because it's all been taken away from them.

"That's why being tough on crime is really important, not just to keep communities safe and to properly punish people, but also to make sure those 13- year-old kids don't look up to drug dealers and think 'actually that is an easy way to make money'.

"We've got to make sure that it's not an easy way to make money."