other APPGs. On 6 September 2013, while the St. Petersburg G20 Summit was ongoing, Smith referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "tosser" on Twitter, following reports of an unnamed Russian official having described Britain as "small and unimportant." Smith subsequently said he stood by his comments, arguing that although it was "difficult to get a serious point across in 140 characters" the serious point was that Putin was an "absurd character who is responsible for some serious breaches of human rights". In 2018, Smith hosted the launch of PAWS – The Policy for Animal Welfare. Created by Cher Chevalier and Judith Clegg the policy provides further suggested steps to improve and fully enforce Animal Welfare Law. Having previously criticised the government's conduct of the Brexit negotiations, he submitted a letter of no confidence in the Conservative Party leader Theresa May on the day after publication of the draft withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU. In October 2019, Smith alleged that he had been targeted with threats and stalking, including threats against his children. Smith said that in one incident, his children's school was publicised on anarchist and left-wing websites. In May 2020, Smith was criticised by several Labour MPs after he described MPs who objected to the end of the virtual parliament system during the COVID-19 pandemic as "lazy" and "work-shy socialists". In June 2020, Smith suggested on Twitter that Karl Marx's grave marker should be removed and claimed Marx, who was born Jewish, was antisemitic. A number of scholars and commentators regard Marx and in particular his work On the Jewish Question, which addresses "The Capacity of Present-day Jews and Christians to Become Free", as antisemitic. In November 2020, Smith was one of 30 Conservative and 6 other MPs voting against a second coronavirus lockdown in England. He also voted against renewing the Coronavirus Act in March 2021 and against a 4 week extension of the lockdown in June 2021. In a June 2021 interview, he highlighted the damaging effect on jobs in his constituency of government policy on travel restrictions. In 2022, following a series of government scandals, he supported Boris Johnson's leadership until the resignations of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid when he joined other Conservative MPs in calling for Johnson's resignation. After first supporting Suella Braverman and then Penny Mordaunt in the leadership race, he then voiced support for