Britain: Health Minister abandons fight against tobacco

According to The Guardian, British Health Secretary Therese Coffey is expected to abandon her anti-smoking action plan, despite the government's promise to publish it. The Health Secretary's long-standing closeness to the tobacco industry likely explains this abandonment.

With Britain already seven years behind schedule in its goal of becoming a smoke-free country by 2030, in February, former health secretary Sajid Javid urged the British government to present an action plan to combat smoking. According to the Guardian, this plan has apparently been abandoned since Thérèse Coffey took over as health minister. A spokesperson for the department said the claims of abandonment were "inaccurate," but did not provide further details on the action plan's follow-up.[1].

Close ties between the Minister of Health and the tobacco industry

Since the early 2010s, Thérèse Coffey, formerly an MP, has distinguished herself with her numerous anti-smoking stances. The current Health Minister was part of a group of twenty MPs who accepted gifts from the manufacturer Japan Tobacco International (JTI). As the Guardian points out, Thérèse Coffey has successively opposed bans on smoking in cars around children, the requirement to sell cigarettes in packs rather than individually, the introduction of plain packaging, and a ban on smoking in bars and nightclubs. According to the newspaper, these pro-smoking positions are shared by Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has been criticized for appointing former tobacco industry lobbyists as advisors at 10 Downing Street.

Health inequality, fight against obesity: the Minister of Health gives up

Wes Streeting, a member of the Labour opposition, sees this risk of abandonment as a symptom of a short-term strategy on the part of the government: "The Conservatives have an ideological mission to remove all common-sense measures that benefit public health […]. The irony is that abandoning prevention will end up costing the taxpayer more in the long run."

Tobacco isn't the only area the new Health Minister has abandoned. Despite a 19-year life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest in Britain, Thérèse Coffey has indicated she is abandoning plans for a white paper on social inequalities in health in the country.[2]. Similarly, the Minister of Health has also abandoned the implementation of measures to combat obesity, even though the latter contributes to at least 64,000 deaths per year in the country and represents a particularly high cost for the public authorities.[3].

FT

[1] The Guardian, Thérèse Coffey to drop smoking action plan, insiders say, 11/10/2022, (accessed 11/10/2022)

[2] The Guardian, Thérèse Coffey scraps promised paper on health inequality, 09/29/2022, (accessed 10/11/2022)

[3] The Guardian, Plans to scrap England's anti-obesity measures 'a national scandal', 09/14/2022, (accessed 10/11/2022)

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