The health secretary appointed by Liz Truss in the UK who is also the deputy prime minister smokes, has accepted money and hospitality from the multinational tobacco company Imperial Tobacco and has voted against all the bills that have since become laws opposing free smoking. Just like Liz Truss who appointed as Downing Street chief of staff a former executive of the tobacco companies B.A.T. and Philip Morris. Specifically for the ban on indoor smoking, its ban on vehicles transporting minors, for which Teresa Coffey stated that “I don’t think it’s right for us to tell parents how to handle the situation” and the single package of uniform packaging.
Underscoring the continued inaction of Britain’s health department, which is in no rush to push ahead with sweeping anti-smoking measures and further restrictions on smoking proposed to Boris Johnson’s government by a report commissioned by then-health secretary Shahid Javid to a charity executive, its chairman smokers’ union Forest wrote on his personal blog that “Genuine liberals should support Truss and Coffey because the alternative – under a Labour or yet another Conservative leader – is almost certain to be more of the same nanny state paternalism that has dominated UK politics for decades. There are bigger issues of course, notably the economy, but pushing back on unnecessary government intervention in our daily lives is important too and this may be the first time in decades we’ve had a PM and Secretary of State for Health who are of similar mind when it comes to less not more regulation and restrictions. Whatever your reservations about Liz Truss, classical liberals desperately need the PM and her deputy to succeed. If like me you believe in freedom of choice and personal responsibility (that manifests itself politically with light touch regulation), this could be our last chance saloon because if they are forced out what’s left? Also, when we have a Home Secretary proposing to make cannabis a class A drug it suggests that not everyone in the Cabinet is completely aligned to a more liberal approach to drugs, legal and illegal.”
Asked by a reporter if he sees Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Theresa Coffey as an ally, Forest Smokers’ Union president Simon Clark said: “I don’t know. I think what was refreshing about her comments is that you have mentioned all these things she has voted against. Well, if she is against further measures, further punitive measures, then that suggests that she’s being remarkably consistent with her beliefs and I think that’s something we should celebrate because we’ve seen so many politicians in the past who have done a 180 degree turn as soon as they get into power. As soon as they get into a senior or government role they go back on everything they have previously said or done. So I think we should actually celebrate that we have got a politician who appears to be sticking to her guns. Now, whether or not she will be able to do that moving forward … we don’t know. But, no, I think her comments were remarkably refreshing and we should congratulate her, not condemn her.”
Bring Back Smoking Freedom 