Tory: Churchill would back our smoke ban plan
THE Health Secretary reckons Winston Churchill would have supported Rishi Sunak’s smoking crackdown.
Victoria Atkins suggested the cigar-loving former Prime Minister would have backed the plans to prevent anyone currently 14 or under from ever buying tobacco.
Amid grumblings from backbench Tory MPs about the proposals, Ms Atkins wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: “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.
“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: “Our thinking must be led by the facts.”
But her remarks have been rubbished by Churchill’s grandson, former Tory MP Lord Soames.
The peer said the wartime leader “certainly wouldn’t have approved” of the idea. He added: “Victoria Atkins is a great friend, 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.”
A YouGov poll in November found two-thirds of people in England support the proposal.
Those who are angry about the plan include up to 100 Tory MPs who are poised to rebel against the bill, which comes to the Commons this week.
At least two recent Prime Ministers are unhappy. Liz Truss is expected to speak out against it, while Boris Johnson has called it “mad”.