Pete Doherty has claimed that he has stopped injecting drugs.

The former Libertines rocker told The Independent that he had been inspired to clean up his act by his new girlfriend.

He said: “I’ve stopped injecting. The only way I can see myself in a serious relationship is if I am toning it down a bit. When you’re banging up all day you can’t really have someone else in your life, especially if she’s an English rose. I wouldn’t let her touch anything. I just wouldn’t.”

The singer also confirmed rumours that he was the father of South African model Lindi Hingston’s baby. Doherty, who already fathered a son, Astile, with Kill City singer Lisa Moorish in 2003, said he had been upset that Hingston had sold her story to a newspaper and also joked that he would use the blood of his daughter in a painting for his new UK art exhibition, which will run at London’s Cob Gallery from February 26 to March 4.

“I’m really surprised she’s done that [talked to a newspaper]. The little girl was two months premature. I said I’d try to be there for the birth,” he said, before confirming: “Yeah, she’s mine. We’re using the baby’s blood in one of the pictures.”

Pete Doherty recently returned to live action in London, playing two solo acoustic shows at Brixton Jamm last month and a gig at Nambucca earlier this month (February 5).

The shows saw him play a number of new songs, including ‘Siberian Fur’, a collaboration with long-time cohort Wolfman and ‘Bird Cage’, which featured the vocals of singer Suzi Martin.