You couldn’t make it up

On January 30, public health minister Andrew Gwynne wrote on Instagram:

“I'm very happy to say that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has now passed the Committee stage.

“I’m incredibly proud of this Bill and all the brilliant scientists, academics, and parliamentarians who have brought it to fruition.”

Helpfully, he then listed some of the policies he was “incredibly proud” of:

• No tobacco sales to anyone born on/after 1 Jan 2009
• Smoking banned outside hospitals, schools and playgrounds
• Ban on vape advertising
• Smoke-free areas to include ban on vaping

Fast forward to yesterday evening.

I was watching the rugby on TV when a news alert popped up on my phone: ‘Health minister sacked over WhatsApp messages’.

According to the Mail on Sunday, which ‘exposed his racist and sexist messages’:

Andrew Gwynne also made anti-Semitic slights and ‘jokes’ about a constituent being ‘mown down’ by a truck.

Keir Starmer stripped Mr Gwynne of his job as Health Minister and suspended his membership of the Labour Party when he was told about the content of the WhatsApp messages yesterday.

Meanwhile, the MP himself apologised for his ‘badly misjudged comments’.

Who saw that coming?

The irony is, if there’s one politician who has been in my head more than any other during the past month - as I have read and re-read the Hansard transcripts of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee meetings - it’s the (former) minister for health Andrew Gwynne.

You couldn’t make it up.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

So, did he support tobacco control because he cares about the lives of people who smoke - or is he just a hater with snobbish views about the sort of people who smoke that he really doesn't want in his vision of the new world?

I know what I think. I have long believed that anti smokerism is about hate not health.