I’m a Tory MP, but I think Thérèse Coffey is putting ideology above the nation’s health

Thérèse Coffey in Downing Street, London, 11 October 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

I am proud to have been the minister for child health in the coalition government that introduced new laws to ban smoking in cars with children. This was an important public health law that prevented children from developing cancer, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and a whole host of other chronic breathing problems that can be caused by inhaling secondhand cigarette and cigar smoke. Putting it simply, banning smoking in cars with children has saved lives. I only wish that the new secretary of state for health held the same view.

Since her election in 2010, Thérèse Coffey has always had a questionable voting record on measures to curb smoking – a unique evil and destroyer of health. The health secretary previously voted against measures to restrict smoking, including a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, the outlawing of smoking in cars with children and plain packaging for cigarettes.