Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting my top 40 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has consistently supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is a consistent opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a few exceptions, I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.
#8 - Sutton & Cheam
Now here's a proper marginal. Better still, the incumbent is the current chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, run by ASH. Not content with plain packaging, the display ban and other anti-smoking policies, Paul Burstow recently tried to introduce a Bill "to make tobacco companies contribute more to putting right the damage caused by smoking". More? 80% of the retail price of tobacco already goes to the government. Isn't that enough to pay for stop smoking programmes (which aren't hugely successful anyway) and the alleged cost of treating smoking-related diseases? The exciting news is that Burstow's principal opponent is public affairs consultant and former Sutton councillor Paul Scully who attended a Forest event at the 2011 Conservative conference in Manchester and tweeted, "Forest fringe event at the comedy store is possibly the best ever in my 14 years at conference."
2010 majority: 1,608 (3.3%)
Estimated number of smokers in Sutton & Cheam: 13,326*
Principal opponent: Conservative
Friend or foe: Foe
Target rating: Very high
*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010
Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.