One of the more contentious elements of this week’s otherwise mundane King’s Speech was Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban smoking for anyone born after 2009. The Conservative government hopes this will bring about a “smokefree generation,” thus “creating a better and brighter future for our children.”
It is so contentious, in fact, that a consultation on the proposal established by the Department of Health less than a month ago has already picked up more than 12,000 responses. And there is still a month to go.
The government’s consultation asks respondents for their views on its intention to “protect future generations from the harms of smoking” by banning tobacco products for certain Britons and to “crack down” on youth vaping.
The content of these submissions is not yet publicly available. But the response to the initial announcement might already suggest which way the current 12,000 individuals and organisations lean.
Well over half of Conservative Party voters are understood to oppose the measure. Some senior Tory MPs have lauded their views, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who is still considered a leading light among some of the party’s circles. Frank Haviland has emphasised their stance in The European Conservative, describing the proposal as “illiberal gibberish.”
Others are simply bemused that this of all policies is being pushed ahead, given the many issues that face the country. Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney asked, “Even in terms of self-preservation, why would you make a smoking ban your flagship policy? Piddling while Rome burns.”
Sunak is trying to win support by highlighting the proportion of cancer deaths caused by tobacco and noting:
Smoking is a deadly habit, so we are making the biggest single public health intervention in a generation to stop our kids from ever being able to buy a cigarette. This will protect their health both now and in [the] future—saving tens of thousands of lives and saving the NHS billions of pounds.
The consultation, which closes in December and can be found here, will assess how convinced Britons are by the prime minister’s approach—though whether or not this will impact his policy agenda is another question altogether.
