Congratulations to Nigel Huddleston MP who Kemi Badenoch has appointed co-chair of the Conservative Party.
Curiously, one of his first tasks was to defend her opposition to a ban on smoking outside pubs.
“Kemi believes in individual personal responsibility and has got great concerns about government coming in and burdening business,” he told Sky News, adding that he was “glad” the plan for a ban on smoking in pub gardens had been dropped.
Funnily enough, although I’ve never met him, Huddleston did once declare his support for the Forest-led campaign to amend the smoking ban to allow designated smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.
In November 2009, while standing as a prospective parliamentary candidate for Luton South (a seat he didn’t win), the future MP for Droitwich and Evesham joined us at a pub in the town.
As I wrote at the following day:
Yesterday, at the invitation of the local Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA) which represents independent licensees, we held a Save Our Pubs & Clubs meeting at The Bramingham pub in Luton.
The meeting was well attended and we made some very useful contacts including Nigel Huddleston, Conservative PPC for Luton South, who even donned a SOPAC t-shirt for the obligatory photograph.
Registering his support for our campaign, Nigel told a colleague: "We've had enough of Gordon Brown's nanny state. Politicians should respect people's freedom to choose."
I doubt that any leading Conservative would advocate an amendment to the existing pub smoking ban today (that ship has sailed), but it’s good to know there are some senior Tories who still believe in personal responsibility and the freedom to choose.
Sadly, the only evidence I have of that meeting in Luton is a small, poor quality image of Huddleston gamely pulling a pint accompanied by a member of staff and Sean Spillane of Luton Social Club (see below).
Sean is retired now but I remember our first meeting because it was the first time I had been to a working men’s club.
See also: The fascinating story of Britain’s working men’s clubs
