New ministers at the Department of Health: how do they rate on tobacco?

So Jeremy Hunt remains Secretary of State for Health but who are the other ministers at the Department of Health?

We're still waiting for confirmation of the public health minister (I'd be surprised if Jane Ellison doesn't continue in the job) but there are two new health ministers replacing Norman Lamb (Lib Dem) and Dr Dan Poulter (Conservative).

The first, announced yesterday, is Alistair Burt, a former Foreign Office minister. First elected in Bury North in 1983, Burt lost the seat in 1997 but returned to parliament in 2001 in North East Bedfordshire.

Burt's record on tobacco control is:

2006 – voted for a ban on smoking in pubs and clubs
2015 – voted for a ban on smoking in private vehicles (carrying children)
2015 – voted for regulations on plain packaging

Announced this morning, Ben Gummer is son of John who was health secretary in the Thatcher and Major governments.

Elected in 2010 Gummer's record on tobacco control is:

2010 – voted for an amendment to the smoking ban
2014 – voted against a ban on smoking in private vehicles (carrying children)
2015 – voted for a ban on smoking in private vehicles (carrying children)
2015 – voted against regulations on plain packaging

As you can see he changed his mind on smoking in cars with children but remained sufficiently independent to vote against plain packaging.

Gummer replaces Dr Dan Poulter who voted against an amendment to the smoking ban (2010), in favour of a ban on smoking in private vehicles carrying children (2014 and 2015), and in favour of plain packaging.

Don't get too excited, though. Conservative MP Simon Burns, a smoker, was a health minister from 2010-12 and that didn't do us much good.

Having voted in 2006 to exempt private clubs in England from the smoking ban, in 2010 Burns failed to vote for or against an amendment to the smoking ban. He later voted for a ban on smoking in private vehicles (carrying children) and compounded that by voting for regulations on plain packaging.

He also keen to clear the air vis a vis his smoking. In an interview in 2012 he commented:

"I want to dispel the myth put around and compounded in every national newspaper story about me that I am the 'chain-smoking health minister'."

Clearing his throat, he added: "I smoke but am categorically not a chain smoker, although my love of swimming has taken a bit of a back seat recently."

Eh?

Update: I haven't seen it confirmed officially but on Twitter several people have congratulated Jane Ellison on her reappointment as public health minister.

No need to remind you that Ellison's record on tobacco control is:

2010 – voted against an amendment to the smoking ban
2014 – voted for a ban on smoking in private vehicles (carrying children)
2015 – voted for a ban on smoking in private vehicles (carrying children)
2015 – voted for regulations on plain packaging

Update: Ellison's position confirmed. See full team here.

Comments

[pat nurse]

Tories hate us. Our votes for good MPs were wasted. They won't be in future. So the only question now is when will we be forced to quit, face jail or leave the country. Five years? Ten?

[gray]

Politicians live off general taxation,so why is our voice not being reflected by them & they cannot justify tax being spent on their sock puppet quangos

[Misty]

“ … failed to vote for or against an amendment to the smoking ban …”

Can you, Simon (or indeed anyone else on here), explain this to me? I’ve long wondered how it can be that so many politicians “abstain” or are “absent” from so many votes. Surely, if they’ve been voted into power by their constituents, then they should be voting on every issue that is presented to Parliament, in order to ensure that their constituents’ voices are heard in the seat of power at Westminster. I know that MPs have a “pairing” system whereby they are paired with a member from the opposing side and, if they will be voting in opposite ways to each other, neither bothers to vote at all, because it would make no difference to the overall result – is that what happens when an MP abstains or is marked as absent? And if so, can we therefore assume that for every MP who would have voted against (for example) the amendment to the smoking ban, but was marked as absent, there was one who would have voted for it, who was also marked as absent? And are “abstention” and “absenteeism” different?

Neither have I ever been able to understand how MPs can vote “strongly” or “moderately” for or against any one issue. Aren’t there just two division lobbies – one for “aye” and one for “no?”

Any explanations gratefully received!