Lorely Burt, friend or foe?

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.

#28 – Solihull
This a strange one. Unlike hundreds of other incumbent candidates I've no reason to feel any animosity towards Liberal Democrat Lorely Burt who is defending one of the smallest majorities in the country. Unlike her colleague Annette Brooke who was a consistent supporter of tobacco control but has thankfully now retired, Burt didn't vote for plain packaging, she didn't vote in favour of a ban on smoking in private vehicles with children, nor did she vote against an amendment to the smoking ban. Truth is she didn't vote either way so I've no idea what her views are. No, the reason Burt makes it on to this list is because of her bizarre behaviour in March 2014 when she "donned a mask and carried a pint of beer [and a fake cigarette] to mock UKIP leader Nigel Farage at her party's spring conference in York" (Daily Telegraph). Fake cigarette? That says all you need to know about the Lorely Burt and the Liberal Democrats. Her real crime, though? It just wasn't funny.

2010 majority: 175 (0.3%)
Estimated number of smokers in Solihull: 15,334*
Principal opponent: Conservative
Friend or foe: Foe
Target rating: Extremely vulnerable

*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.