Therese Coffey....

She has also admitted sharing prescription medicines with friends, for which she should have lost her job immediately.

It would be hard to make it up, wouldn't it?

It does seem like a very odd choice. Surely she could have been given a more appropriate post ?

Her size and that she's a smoker isn't really the issue - as we know to our cost, how many ministers have relevant qualifications for their brief?

The libertarian sh*te that she espouses is the problem - a government should help and advise in public health matters as with AIDS, seat belts, Covid etc.

It's not a 'nanny-state' to promote healthy living.

She also said she didn’t know about the law forbidding smoking in a car with children.

She's Liz Truss's best friend and agrees with her on everything.

That's the only qualification required to be Deputy PM and anything else she wants to be.

I have no problem with her size, smoking or drinking (I know many overweight healthcare professionals who smoke and drink)

I am more concerned about her attitude to handing out prescription drugs and her lack of knowledge concerning U.K. laws.

She’s also a Catholic and somewhat ambiguous about where she stand on abortion. I’d forgotten about her ideas on people smoking in cars with children ( l lose track….)

She is a serious liability to public health and should be deposed when they get rid of Truss, if not sooner. I don't care if she is overweight, drinks and smokes but I think she is ambiguous on abortion.

Cannot stand the woman..

Well it’s the best that bunch of incompetents can produce.
Lizz needs any friend she can find. Of course it is ridiculous but so are the Tories.

I started a thread about the prescription sharing a couple of days ago. She should have been reported for that.
I agree, it’s not her size or habits, unhealthy they may be, that makes her unfit for Health Minister. It’s her libertarian ideology which she espouses, and seems to want to put into practice, without regard to medical advice.

The abortion issue is important as far as I’m concerned and if law was changed as some would wish, it would be so damaging to women. We seem to be following US with health care, so it’s not beyond the imagination.

In the current situation in the NHS this country needs someone as Health Minister who can be relied upon to manage things with common sense and empathy. After all concerns about health are common to us all. It’s a vital role and Therese Coffey is totally unsuited to it.

Yep: I reckon that anyone with no qualifications in medicine or pharmacy happy to share prescription drugs with others, and tell the whole nation about it, isn't fit for any job at number 10 Downing Street except for feeding Larry and cleaning out his litter tray.

A prime example of 'Don't do as I do, do as I say" Who would choose such a person as Health Secretary? Only someone who is delusional.

It's simple isn't it. If you are a PM who is useless you need a team around you who don't make you look quite so useless. So a Health Minister who doesn't care about health, a Chancellor who can't manage the economy (But he had to go). And JRM to keep telling everyone about levelling up (he'd obviously know about that wouldn't he?)
With a team like that people might think you were OK

Good point, Glorianny.

It is true. My children started at a primary school which had an utterly useless headmaster. This was in the 1970s. All the other teachers were women, and some of them were very good teachers but the deputy headmaster was the only other male teacher who was so stupid and incompetent that he made the head look good by comparison.

I had hoped that these days were long gone, but apparently not.

Chocolatelovinggran

Yep: I reckon that anyone with no qualifications in medicine or pharmacy happy to share prescription drugs with others, and tell the whole nation about it, isn't fit for any job at number 10 Downing Street except for feeding Larry and cleaning out his litter tray.

Poor Larry - I feel he deserves better

You could be right nanak K54.

You’re brave MandL to mention her weight and smoking. I once wrote on a thread about someone having ‘a nice slim figure’ and I was shot down in flames.

I am someone who struggles with my weight and tries hard to get to a health weight. I don’t think Coffey would inspire me.

I think she is totally inappropriate for the job and her ‘supposed’ views on women’s choice regarding abortion are worrying.

I suspect by this time next week she and Liz will have departed.

I was accused of fat shaming by describing someone as “large”.

She is our MP in Suffolk and a most unhelpful one.
Have met her several times and haven’t been impressed.
Best buddies with LT.

Thanks for all of your replies. I’m not the only on who sees her attitudes as a problem then!
To be clear, I did not criticise her weight or that she smokes in my original post, just her attitudes and political stance.
Still, as has been said- hopefully both her and Truss will be gone by next week- and hopefully sooner!