14 April 2024 , 11:05
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The Health Secretary has claimed Winston Churchill would have supported Rishi Sunak's smoking crackdown - and urged Tory rebels to get behind it.
Victoria Atkins suggested the cigar-chomping former Prime Minister would have got behind plans to effectively ban anyone aged 14 or younger from ever buying tobacco. The wartime leader smoked up to 10 cigars a day and even has a line named after him.
But Ms Atkins suggested the Tory icon would have supported the Government's plans amid grumblings from backbenchers that it is not Conservative. Writing in The Telegraph, she said: “Is this policy Conservative, some have asked? I profoundly believe it is. In doing so I draw inspiration from the words of a brilliant former Daily Telegraph correspondent, who became our greatest Prime Minister.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins insisted Winston Churchill would have supported the smoking crackdown (PA)"I am referring, of course, to Winston Churchill, who once wrote of his relief from passing from ‘the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact’." She added: “One of the foundations of the Conservative Party is that we take tough decisions to protect future generations. That applies to the burdens of debt repayments and growing the economy. It should apply to addiction too.”
However her comments were immediately rubbished by Churchill's grandson Lord Soames, who said he “certainly wouldn’t have approved”.
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The former Conservative MP said: "Victoria Atkins is a great friend and a very competent minister but with the greatest respect to her, I’m afraid they’ve got it very wrong on this. To bring my grandfather into it is ridiculous. We all know what the risks are and there is no need to do this.”
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There is broad public support for the plan, announced by Mr Sunak at last year's Conservative Party conference. A YouGov poll in November found two thirds (67%) of people in England back it, with support from 74% of Tory voters and 72% of Labour voters.
But the idea has angered some Tory right-wingers, with up to 100 Conservative MPs poised to rebel on the Bill, which comes to the Commons this week. MPs are being given a free vote, which has sparked questions over whether Mr Sunak is too weak to order his backbenchers to support it.
Ex-PM Liz Truss is expected to speak out against it this week. And Boris Johnson took aim at the idea as he branded Mr Sunak's policies as “absolutely, absolutely nuts”. Speaking at an event in Canada this week, he said: “I see my beloved party... we’re banning cigars. And what is the point? The party of Winston Churchill wants a ban. I mean, donnez-moi un break as they say in Quebec. It’s just mad.”