Smoking Bill - how MPs voted
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 David Nuttall's attempt to introduce a Bill to amend the smoking ban may have fallen by a majority of 55 (86 in favour of an amendment, 141 against).
However, as has been noted in several quarters, we should take heart from the fact that one third of MPs voted on an issue that many people said was dead, and of those 86 MPs voted in favour of an amendment to the smoking ban. In the circumstances, not a bad result.
According to one observer, "The turnout suggests that the antis are taking the threat of a relaxation seriously, something inconceivable before the Election. Even a few in the pub industry are starting to believe that an improvement may be possible."
Correct. Anyway, you can read the full debate HERE. And here's how they voted:
PUBLIC HOUSES AND PRIVATE MEMBERS' CLUBS (SMOKING) BILL
Motion for leave to bring in a Bill
Ayes (in favour of amendment)
Bacon, Mr Richard
Baker, Steve
Bebb, Guto
Bingham, Andrew
Binley, Mr Brian
Brady, Mr Graham
Bridgen, Andrew
Burley, Mr Aidan
Campbell, Mr Gregory
Campbell, Mr Ronnie
Carswell, Mr Douglas
Chishti, Rehman
Chope, Mr Christopher
Coffey, Dr Thérèse
Colvile, Oliver
Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth)
Davies, Philip
Davis, rh Mr David
Dinenage, Caroline
Dodds, rh Mr Nigel
Donaldson, rh Mr Jeffrey M.
Doyle-Price, Jackie
Elphicke, Charlie
Evans, Jonathan
Glindon, Mrs Mary
Goldsmith, Zac
Gummer, Ben
Halfon, Robert
Harris, Mr Tom
Hemming, John
Henderson, Gordon
Hinds, Damian
Javid, Sajid
Johnson, Gareth
Johnson, Joseph
Kirby, Simon
Knight, rh Mr Greg
Kwarteng, Kwasi
Latham, Pauline
Leigh, Mr Edward
Liddell-Grainger, Mr Ian
Lilley, rh Mr Peter
Lopresti, Jack
Maynard, Paul
McCartney, Karl
McIntosh, Miss Anne
Menzies, Mark
Mercer, Patrick
Metcalfe, Stephen
Mordaunt, Penny
Morris, Anne Marie
Morris, David
Mosley, Stephen
Mowat, David
Mulholland, Greg
Nuttall, Mr David
Ollerenshaw, Eric
Ottaway, Richard
Patel, Priti
Perkins, Toby
Pincher, Christopher
Rees-Mogg, Jacob
Robertson, Mr Laurence
Rudd, Amber
Sanders, Mr Adrian
Shelbrooke, Alec
Skidmore, Chris
Smith, Henry
Stephenson, Andrew
Stewart, Bob
Stewart, Iain
Stewart, Rory
Tapsell, Sir Peter
Thurso, John
Truss, Elizabeth
Turner, Mr Andrew
Tyrie, Mr Andrew
Uppal, Paul
Walker, Mr Charles
Walker, Mr Robin
Walter, Mr Robert
Weatherley, Mike
Wharton, James
Whittaker, Craig
Whittingdale, Mr John
Williamson, Gavin
Tellers for the Ayes:
Mr Peter Bone and
Mr Philip Hollobone
Noes (against amendment)
Abbott, Ms Diane
Alexander, Heidi
Andrew, Stuart
Bailey, Mr Adrian
Barclay, Stephen
Barron, rh Mr Kevin
Bayley, Hugh
Begg, Miss Anne
Beith, rh Sir Alan
Beresford, Sir Paul
Betts, Mr Clive
Blenkinsop, Tom
Boles, Nick
Brake, Tom
Brine, Mr Steve
Brooke, Annette
Brown, Mr Russell
Bruce, Fiona
Bruce, rh Malcolm
Burden, Richard
Caton, Martin
Chapman, Mrs Jenny
Clark, Katy
Clarke, rh Mr Tom
Collins, Damian
Connarty, Michael
Corbyn, Jeremy
Crausby, Mr David
Cunningham, Alex
Dakin, Nic
Donohoe, Mr Brian H.
Doyle, Gemma
Dromey, Jack
Durkan, Mark
Ellison, Jane
Engel, Natascha
Esterson, Bill
Evans, Graham
Farron, Tim
Fitzpatrick, Jim
Flynn, Paul
Fovargue, Yvonne
Freer, Mike
Fuller, Richard
Gapes, Mike
Gardiner, Barry
Gilmore, Sheila
Goggins, rh Paul
Green, Kate
Griffith, Nia
Gyimah, Mr Sam
Hancock, Matthew
Hanson, rh Mr David
Harris, Rebecca
Havard, Mr Dai
Hemming, John
Hollingbery, George
Hopkins, Kelvin
Horwood, Martin
Howarth, rh Mr George
Huppert, Dr Julian
James, Margot
James, Mrs Siân C.
Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald
Keeley, Barbara
Kelly, Chris
Laing, Mrs Eleanor
Lavery, Ian
Lazarowicz, Mark
Leadsom, Andrea
Lee, Dr Phillip
Leech, Mr John
Lefroy, Jeremy
Leslie, Chris
Lloyd, Tony
Long, Naomi
Love, Mr Andrew
Lucas, Caroline
Lumley, Karen
Mann, John
McCann, Mr Michael
McCarthy, Kerry
McCrea, Dr William
McDonnell, John
Mearns, Ian
Miller, Andrew
Mills, Nigel
Moon, Mrs Madeleine
Morrice, Graeme
Morris, James
Munn, Meg
Murray, Sheryll
Nash, Pamela
Nokes, Caroline
Offord, Mr Matthew
Osborne, Sandra
Owen, Albert
Pearce, Teresa
Percy, Andrew
Phillips, Stephen
Poulter, Dr Daniel
Raynsford, rh Mr Nick
Reid, Mr Alan
Ritchie, Ms Margaret
Rogerson, Dan
Rosindell, Andrew
Rotheram, Steve
Roy, Lindsay
Ruddock, rh Joan
Russell, Bob
Shannon, Jim
Sharma, Mr Virendra
Sheerman, Mr Barry
Sheridan, Jim
Shuker, Gavin
Simpson, David
Skinner, Mr Dennis
Slaughter, Mr Andy
Smith, rh Mr Andrew
Smith, Julian
Smith, Nick
Smith, Sir Robert
Soulsby, Sir Peter
Stevenson, John
Stride, Mel
Stuart, Ms Gisela
Swales, Ian
Thomas, Mr Gareth
Tomlinson, Justin
Twigg, Stephen
Vaz, Valerie
Walley, Joan
Ward, Mr David
White, Chris
Whitehead, Dr Alan
Williams, Roger
Williams, Stephen
Williamson, Chris
Winnick, Mr David
Wollaston, Dr Sarah
Wright, Simon
Tellers for the Noes:
Peter Bottomley and
Chris Bryant
Reader Comments (16)
I'm glad my M.P was one of the "AYES" well done! That was Gareth Johnson of Dartford who is for sure a man of his word. He said he would support any amendment to the smoking ban to help our licenceing industry and a man of common sense, it's just a shame there wasn't more conservatives who believe in choice and I hope something will just have to give and all the "NOES" will lose thier seats at the next Genaral Election. As for Diane Abbott, who said during the Labour leadership election we need to get back in touch with our supporters, well what planet is she living on. Gary Rogers
This was a battle between the Tories and Labour. Nearly all Ayes were Tories and about 70% of the Nos were Labour. So the Labour nanny state still rules.
Of course it still does- in the form of Blue/Yellow Labour!! The real Tories were the ayes.
Now that the door has beeen slammed shut in the face of reason and freedom
can we assume those of a moderating stance will admit defeat and join in a
more aggressive approach to the issue.
Like I wrote yesterday - Martin and all - the usual Gesundheitsfaschismus prevails. The ban is so popular most pubs etc. now resemble funeral parlours - same amount of life in them. I despair, I really do. 'They' (who are supposed to work for us and represent us, the people) are really our 'Führer' and 'Gesundheitsleiter' in all respects and we must obey. Another sad day for democracy passes and - what sort of more aggressive approach, Free Corps? No one listens to us anyway - or so it seems. However, I do applaud those real Tories who did support this and made a stand by supporting this.
Mine never voted .
Smart move.
The reason for this comment is ,now we know who the actively anti smoker MP'a are.
How did John Hemming vote please.
Disappointing though this result is, it isn’t really unexpected. With cuts looming and the public increasingly sceptical of health scares in general, and bored with the increasingly-tortuous links being made between smoking and pretty much any ailment which hasn’t already been named in this connection, the anti-smoking movement is now fighting for its very existence, although they won’t admit it. So it was absolutely essential that they wrung out every last drop of support to defeat this Bill – failure to do so would have undoubtedly accelerated the downfall of the whole movement, and there are a lot of people – many MP’s included – who just don’t want their (erstwhile) most profitable, favourite, and most satisfying hobby-horse taken away from them just yet.
On the positive side, quite apart from the fact that there is far less of a numerical difference now between the ban-lovers and the ban-dislikers, it’s worth noting just how many MP’s simply didn’t vote at all, bearing in mind that the vote for the Health Act 2006 was undertaken by an almost totally full House in an atmosphere of what one MP described as “feverish excitement.” Maybe many MP’s have finally realised that – now that the reality of the ban is upon us all, and the often-unintended consequences of it have been laid bare for all to see – it really isn’t as “overwhelmingly popular” as the ASH press releases and the ban-loving BMC would have them believe. Maybe they’ve finally rumbled that they’ve been lied to right down the line and that their best bet is to keep their heads firmly below the parapet. Good!
Excellent on a personal level. My MP is Gavin Williamson, a young guy who took over from long-standing Parliamentarian Sir Patrick Cormack. I wrote to him about Brian Binley's proposal and received a response that he was against the Ban. Nice to see he's a man of his word.
On the other hand, despite the result that the motion was defeated you can imagine that ASH HQ was working overtime rallying the real anti-MPs to the cause in an attempt to quash this exposure of their "It's popular!" lies before it even got going. I suspect that all those who voted against are the sum total of the anti-MPs in the House, and that if all were FORCED to vote there would not be many added to their number.
That said, seeing the spouting of one discredited study after another by the Labour guy just emphasised that this war won't be won on issues of "fairness", "civil liberties" or even economics.
It'll be won by the Science.
More effort needs to be made to get the many critiques of their junk studies out to the people. How many MPS, if forced to vote, would abstain because while they do not like the ban they think it's "in the public good?" If they saw how often they have been lied to (deliberately) and how much of the stuff spewed by Tobacco Control isn't even fit to be used as toilet paper, we may finally see some progress. (And ASH's funding and influence cut, which would also be a damn good thing!).
Indeed, when one considers the scientific fiskings of such studies by Dave Atherton, Micheal McFadden, Christopher Snowdon and others (including antis, such as Micheal Siegel), I fail to see why simple, clear critiques of these studies are not issued to MPs and the media at every opportunity.
Without winning the science war and showing how corrupt the likes of Stanton Glantz and ASH are, there will never be any change, either in the law or how smokers are treated. Good God - the "Panorama" or "World in Action" that could be done on Tobacco Control would be TV dynamite. Yet it'll never happen. And it won't, without raising the very real doubt in people's minds that they are being lied to, deliberately and repeatedly.
Frank is right - not as bad a result as we might have feared. If the dreary reiteration of half-baked (and possibly only half-believed) epidemiology and dodgy stats is all the opposition has to come up with, then it's clearly running out of steam.
It would also be tactically unwise for the Antis to push for even more repressive measures: such actions would simply make them appear as pig-headed and tyrannical as we've been suggesting all along.
To put it bluntly, they've run out of space in which to manoeuvre - and the rest of the field is ours.
Only a matter of time, surely ?
@Mr A
I entirely agree with you we need to push the SHS argument more. I have uncovered yesterday ASH with its pants down on Parliamentary procedures, and in clear violation of its charity status, watch this space.
PS I got a message on Facebook a couple of months ago on Diane Abbott. I am led to believe it that she asked that rumours on Facebook that she is a size 22 were to be deleted.
Not me guv, dunno, size 22 is that in Klingon?
Just sent this to my MP - Dear Mr Stevenson,
I was disappointed to see that you voted against the bill to exempt pubs and clubs from the smoking ban. The rate of closures of pubs and clubs has been horrific in the three years since the ban was imposed on the pretence that Second Hand Smoke, (SHS), was damaging the health of workers in the trade. The idea that a Conservative MP could support such an illiberal piece of legislation is disturbing. Do you not believe that licensees and club committees should be entitled to manage their own affairs, insofar that they should be able to chose whether to allow their customers to indulge in a still-legal habit? The myth propagated by the last government, that millions of non-smokers were just waiting to start using pubs after the ban, has proved to be a costly lie, and the unemployment in the trade and the supply side of the trade is relentlessly rising.
I should be sorry if you reply in terms suggesting that this draconian ban is justified on health grounds, as there is no statistically valid evidence that SHS causes damage to health of non-smokers - even the WHO has had to concede this. Apart from the massive economic cost to the pub industry and costs of enforcement, the law of unintended consequences has also seen a rise in bootleg tobacco and cigarette sales. This last is the product of forcing smokers into outdoor huddles where contacts are made with illegal suppliers! Another loss to HMRC at such a time may not be too smart.
I hope that you may be able to review your position and support Brian Binley's EDM on the subject.
I was skeptical at first about the smoking ban when it first came in but am more supportive of it now than I used to be especially as I find myself coughing whenever my dad smokes in the car.Also I am sure that the Tory Mp's (most of whom admire Margaret Thatcher) would find it strange being branded Blue Labour despite being rank Thatcherites due to their stance on the Smoking Ban.