Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a number of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a handful of exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.
#14 – Hendon
Elected in 2010 Matthew Offord voted against David Nuttall's Ten Minute Rule Bill to amend the smoking ban. He voted in favour of plain packaging. Curiously, in 2011 he voted against a private member's bill to ban smoking in cars carrying children but four years later, in February 2015, he voted for the policy. In the same month he asked the Secretary of State for Justice "if he will direct the National Offender Management Service to ban cigarette smoking on the prison estate". As it happens Offord is defending one of the smallest majorities in the country. Need I say more?
2010 majority: 106 (0.2%)
Estimated number of smokers in Hendon: 15,773*
Principal opponent: Labour
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.