Tory MP told ‘get a grip’ after using Holocaust poem to condemn smoking plan
Board urges Conservative MP Esther McVey to delete 'repugnant' post using Martin Niemoller's First They Came For poem to criticise Keir Starmer over smoking ban
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Esther McVey has been urged to “get a grip” after using a poem written about the failure to prevent the Nazi Holocaust to criticise plans by the UK government to introduce outdoor smoking bans.
McVey, the MP for Tatton, posted on X the words of Martin Niemöller’s famous post-Holocaust poem “First they came for … ” including the lines “Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out…”
She then wrote: “Pertinent words re Starmer’s smoking ban.”
The Board of Deputies described McVey’s post on X as “an ill-considered and repugnant action” and urged her to delete the post.
But McVey later responded to call for her to remove the post by claiming in a statement that “people are deliberately twisting the meaning of my words.”
She hit out at what she said were “politically correct bullies”.
But McVey’s decision to make the link between a failure to prevent the Nazi Holocaust and moves to restrict smoking at restaurants and pubs first proposed by former PM Rishi Sunak, was immediately criticised.
The Board said:”The use of Martin Niemoller’s poem about the horrors of the Nazis to describe a potential smoking ban is an ill-considered and repugnant action.
“We would strongly encourage the MP for Tatton to delete her tweet and apologise for this breathtakingly thoughtless comparison.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting posted on X: “No, I do not think the post-war confessional of Martin Niemöller about the silent complicity of the German intelligentsia and clergy in the Nazi rise to power is pertinent to a Smoking Bill that was in your manifesto and ours to tackle one of the biggest killers.
“Get a grip.”
Responding to McVey’s comparison, Rabbi David Mason posted on X:”Tasteless. Utterly tasteless. How can you not see that?”
Justin Grainge Photography
The commentator and campaigner against antisemitism Alex Hearn also described McVey’s post as “immensely callous, stupid and offensive.”
Labour minister Ellie Reeves said McVey’s post was “grossly offensive from someone who sat at the Tory cabinet table just months ago.”
Labour MP Josh Fenton-Glynn posted: “This poem is about the Holocaust. Esther McVey is comparing curbs on smoking outside pubs to the Holocaust.”
Niemöller wrote the much quoted poem in 1946 after changing his view of the Nazis after being imprisoned himself in a concentration camp for speaking out about control of the churches in Germany at the time.
His poem is featured prominently on the website of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust as an important tool for understanding why speaking out against tyranny is so important.
Keir Stamer had been asked about plans to prohibit outdoor smoking at some public venues, while in Paris on Thursday.
He said: “My starting point on this is to remind everybody that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking,” he said.
“That is a preventable death, it’s a huge burden on the NHS and, of course, it is a burden on the taxpayer. So, yes, we are going to take decisions in this space, more details will be revealed, but this is a preventable series of deaths and we’ve got to take action to reduce the burden on the NHS and the taxpayer.”
You Gov polling on Thursday showed the public tended to support the plan, with 58% of people saying they backed the idea, against 35% who did not. The figures were virtually identical for Conservative voters.
McVey has leant her support to Robert Jenrick’s bid to become the next Tory leader.
Jenrick also criticised Starmer over the smoking ban plan posting:”This man does not understand our country.”
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