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Reid: 'let the poor smoke'
By Isabel Oakeshott, Evening Standard Political Correspondent Last updated at 00:00am on 09.06.04
Health Secretary John Reid was embroiled in a furious row today after claiming smoking was the "only enjoyment" for the poor.
Mr Reid was accused of having a "class hang-up" after suggesting that the habit was one of the few pleasures left to single mothers and the working classes.
In an extraordinary outburst, he claimed the debate over banning smoking in public places had
become an "obsession of the middle classes."
The Health Secretary, who himself had a 60-a-day habit until 18 months ago, said: "I just do not think the worst problem on our sink estates by any means is smoking- - but that it is an obsession of the learned middle class.
"What enjoyment does a 21-yearold single mother of three living in a council sink estate get? The only enjoyment they have is to have a cigarette." Mr Reid made the comments-amid mounting pressure on ministers to introduce a tough new ban on smoking in public places.
His remarks at a Labour Party event triggered a barrage of criticism from anti-smoking campaigners and opposition politicians today.
A spokesman for the campaign group ASH said: "It's incredibly patronising to talk about smoking in this way.
"John Reid has got this hang-up about the middle class imposing itself on the lower class, when it's the least empowered people - like bar workers - who are having smoking imposed on them."
Around 13 million people in Britain still smoke, costing the NHS millions every day. In London, patients with diseases linked to tobacco take up 1,100 hospital beds every day - almost enough to fill the whole of Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals.
Ministers are considering new laws restricting smoking in an effort to curb soaring rates of lung cancer, strokes and heart disease.
Prime Minister Tony Blair last week voiced cautious support for the move - acknowledging that the habit is a major public health problem. Both the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians - two of the most influential medical bodies in the UK - insist the time has come for tough measures to protect the public.
Last week, the Prime Minister hinted that the Government will try to avoid a backlash from voters by leaving the final decision on banning smoking in public places to local authorities. Ministers are particularly anxious to avoid accusations that they are turning Britain into a "nanny state".
At yesterday's event, Mr Reid said: "Empowerment is different from instruction.
"You have got to be very careful that you do not say to the 75-year-old that 'You are better off if you are not going to be able to go to a working men's club and smoke'."
Doctors reacted with surprise and anger today.
A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said: "Quite apart from the individual damage to smokers, there's passive smoking to consider. It isn't just damage they do themselves, it's the damage they do to others."
Last month, the Royal College of Physicians warned that the Government was rapidly "running out of excuses" not to introduce new legislation restricting smoking in public places.
