Labour has accused Health Secretary Therese Coffey of being “clueless” after she was unable to rule out the plan to get England smoke free by 2030 being scrapped or delayed.
Ms Coffey, the Deputy Prime Minister who is partial to a cigar, said on Tuesday she is “not aware” whether the target to get the adult smoking rate down to 5% or under has been axed.
The Government promised to publish a tobacco control plan “later this year” but the Guardian said ministers are expected to break that commitment.
Ms Coffey was unable to say whether this is the case or not, instead saying her priority was on her ambitions for “ABCD” – ambulances, backlog, care, doctors and dentists.
“I’m not aware any target has been scrapped. My focus right now is the ABCD,” she told Sky News.
Her Labour shadow Wes Streeting said: “The Health Secretary is ‘unaware’ of a major plank of her own Government’s health policy because she spends little time in her own department and most of her time firefighting in Number 10.
“Clueless and hopeless.”
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) insisted the target was not being scrapped and said ministers remained “committed” to the smoke-free target.
Leading medics argue that ministers will miss the target unless further action is taken.
Ms Coffey, who has been heading the department for a month, told LBC radio she did not know if the nation is on track “because I haven’t looked into this specific prevention policy”.
She would not confirm whether she is personally committed to the policy, saying: “I’m a Government minister so if that’s Government policy today then that’s what I agree with. I don’t have personal views on these sorts of matters.”
Ms Coffey’s voting record shows she has been against measures to reduce smoking, including banning lighting up in cars containing children.
Asked why she did not support that measure, she told LBC: “Probably because I didn’t think it’s the right thing to be doing to be telling parents to be handling the situation.”
She was unaware of whether the law had changed, which it had, to make it illegal to smoke in cars carrying under-18s.
Smoking causes nearly one in five cancer cases and more than one in four cancer deaths each year in the UK.
It is inaccurate to suggest that the tobacco control plan has been scrapped and the Government remains committed to its smoke-free ambition by 2030. We will set out our next steps for the plan in due course— DHSC spokesman
Almost six million people in England still smoke.
In June, a major review led by Dr Javed Khan said smoking should be banned in outdoor spaces such as beer gardens, cafe pavements and beaches.
The Government-commissioned review said ministers will not meet the smoke-free target by 2030 without urgent reforms.
A DHSC spokesman said the position on publishing the tobacco plan this year had not changed, but could not say whether it would be published in the coming months.
“It is inaccurate to suggest that the tobacco control plan has been scrapped and the Government remains committed to its smoke-free ambition by 2030,” he added.
“We will set out our next steps for the plan in due course.”
