The British government is not messing about with its plan to phase out smoking. And unlike measures to stop illegal migration, it looks as though this actually will be carried through, even if (or when) the Tories lose the next election, since it has the backing of Labour.
Ministers will make it an offence for anyone born after 1 January, 2009 to be sold tobacco in England. It is not yet clear how officials will police the purchasing of tobacco on behalf of someone born after this time by another born just slightly before it during the likely jolty, “two-tiered” phase-out period.
A consultation on these plans ended on Wednesday. This received around 25,000 responses—far more than the piddly 567 picked up by the government’s call for evidence on AI in education.
Officials have yet to analyse the results but are already keen to announce that “plans to introduce the most significant public health intervention in a generation and phase out smoking are progressing at pace.”
The Department of Health claims that “the majority of the public are behind the plans,” though reports have noted that the majority of Conservative Party members are opposed to them. The Sun also quotes a department source who states that the number of Tory MPs raising concerns behind closed doors is “much higher” than public criticism suggests.
Former party leader and prime minister Liz Truss is perhaps the most senior figure to have come out in opposition, saying she would vote against the “illiberal” ban. Other Tories have said they would also vote against any such measure unless cigars are exempt; that is to say that they would be willing to restrict the rights of others so long as their own pleasures were left untouched.
But Rishi Sunak is unfazed by such posturing and is focused on smoking being a leading cause of preventable illness and death. He said that banning tobacco products will succeed in “saving tens of thousands of lives and saving the NHS billions of pounds.”
The prime minister also appears not to have been moved by New Zealand’s decision to scrap its own smoking ban. Sunak said that his government’s position “remains unchanged” after critics—including in the tobacco industry—questioned whether he wanted England to be the first country in the world to ban smoking for future generations.
