Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a series 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 few exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.
#17 - Kingswood (Gloucestershire)
Chris Skidmore, 33, is one of our younger and brighter MPs. A grammar school boy who went on to get a first class degree at Oxford, he's acted as advisor to David Willetts and Michael Gove; he was chairman of the Bow Group (2007-08) and is a research fellow at Policy Exchange. He's served on the House of Commons Health Select Committee but, more important, he's a member of Free Enterprise Group of MPs. This may explain why, in 2010, he supported an amendment to the smoking ban, and in 2015 opposed plain packaging of tobacco.
2010 majority: 2,445 (5.1%)
Estimated number of smokers in : 13,270*
Principal opponent: Labour
Friend or foe: Friend
Target rating: Vulnerable to tactical voting
*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.