Wes Streeting on Sunday

Wes Streeting was on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (BBC1) this morning.

The last time Labour’s shadow health secretary was on the programme, in January, he generated national headlines by suggesting that Labour would consider a New Zealand style ban on the sale of cigarettes.

His remarks followed an interview, given to The Times and published the previous day, in which he said he was ready to take on the ‘libertarian right’ over smoking, a comment I responded to here - ‘Labour, law and libertarians’.

According to the Telegraph, one of many newspapers that rose to the bait:

A Labour government could ban the sale of cigarettes in order to eradicate smoking by 2030, says the shadow health secretary.

Wes Streeting said Labour would consult on banning the sale and purchase of cigarettes as part of a “radical” package of measures to stamp out smoking.

He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the Government needed to consider more radical options as the UK was set to miss its target of the UK being “smoke-free” by 2030.

Less than a month ago, pushed by ITV’s Robert Peston on whether “Reducing smoking and vaping is a priority for you?”, Streeting replied, bullishly, “100 per cent.”

I wonder if he’s changed his mind.

Today, just days after the Government announced its latest tobacco control plans, including vape kits to help smokers quit, the subject didn’t merit a single mention.

Instead (and understandably), the Kuenssberg interview was all about the NHS, and the threat of further strikes by nurses and junior doctors.

A few minutes later Streeting popped up again, this time on GB News.

Interviewed by Camilla Tominey, he was grilled about the NHS, the strikes, smart motorways (introduced, according to Tominey, by Labour in 2006), and the party’s anti-Sunak attack ads.

And still no mention of the Government’s policies on smoking and vaping. Why?

Well, followers of Streeting on Twitter (he is described as ‘prolific on social media’) will know that this week he has tweeted not a single comment on this week’s announcements.

Few politicians are currently as ambitious and media savvy as Labour’s shadow health Secretary, so what Streeting’s silence tells us is this.

One, he wants to set the agenda on smoking and vaping, not react to it.

Two, given everything that is going on, in the NHS and elsewhere, even he must know that tackling smoking is not a priority for government (or opposition), and banging on about it will merely make him, and Labour, look foolish and out-of-touch, especially in what used to be their heartlands.

So, thanks, Wes. You’ve just confirmed what we’ve known for years, and now the Government knows it too.

Tackling smoking is not a priority, nor is it an election issue.

Oh, and the Government got it right with last week’s announcements. The carrot not the stick is the best way forward for tobacco control, because choice and personal responsibility are paramount.

Take that away and voters won’t thank you. Especially if the Conservatives remain committed to a more liberal, less interventionist, agenda.

Update: By coincidence (!), today’s Mail on Sunday also features an interview with Streeting and that doesn’t mention smoking or vaping either.

So not such a priority after all (which is good news).