Rishi Sunak suffered a further blow to his authority as almost half of his own MPs refused to vote for his plan to make it illegal for anyone born in 2009 or later to buy products in tobacco in the UK.
A total of 57 Tories passed the no lobby on Tuesday night, while 106 abstained or abstained – meaning that of the 347 sitting Conservatives, only 178 (51%) supported the bill. .
Among the rivals are several MPs who reportedly have leadership ambitions: Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary; Suella Braverman, the former home secretary; and Robert Jenrick, the former Home Office minister.
Former prime minister Liz Truss also voted against the legislation along with several serving ministers: Alex Burghart, the Cabinet Office minister; Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland minister; Julia Lopez, the minister of culture; Lee Rowley, the community minister; and Andrew Griffith, the science minister.
They were joined by former Conservative deputy party chairman Lee Anderson, as well as George Galloway and seven DUP MPs.
Kemi Badenoch
The business secretary was the only cabinet minister to vote against the proposed smoking ban. Before the vote, he went to X to say that he agreed with the policy’s objectives but argued: “We should not treat legally competent adults differently in this way, where people born on a day apart there are permanent different rights”, and also cited the difficulties he thinks businesses will have in implementing any ban.
Badenoch later played down suggestions his decision indicated he was postponing a future Tory leadership bid. He told LBC it was “a shame” to see people like that.
Suella Braverman
The former home secretary and controversy seem to go hand in hand. He returned from a controversial rightwing conference in Brussels, after a local mayor ordered the police to shut it down, to vote against the bill.
Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary by Sunak in November, recently ruled himself out of a Tory leadership bid but has fired a series of political grenades at the prime minister in recent months. week.
Liz Truss
Opposition to the plans was led by the former prime minister, who made a speech in the Commons arguing for “virtue-signalling” and “finger-wagging, nannying control freaks”.
Truss has been vocal recently as she promotes her new book. His closest allies also voted with him including his former party chairman, Jake Berry, former ministers Simon Clarke, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Alec Shelbrooke, as well as Craig Whittaker, who is his deputy chief whip in his short stint in Downing Street.
Robert Jenrick
The former immigration minister, who is believed to harbor leadership ambitions and has become increasingly popular with hardliners, joined Badenoch in declaring his opposition to the plan on social media.
He wrote to X: “I believe in personal freedom. Let’s educate more and ban prohibition. I also believe in the principle of equality under the law.”
In January, Jenrick, who resigned from Sunak’s government over the PM’s “weak” Rwanda deportation bill – refused to rule out a bid for the leadership of the Tory party.