What is Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban and who will it affect?

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak wants to effectively ban smoking in the UK.

The PM is mounting an historic crackdown on cigarettes by proposing to raise the legal age every year until there are no smokers left.

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What is Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban?

Rishi Sunak’s proposed smoking ban applies to the sale of cigarettes in the UK rather than the act of smoking itself.

You currently have to be 18 or over to buy a pack of smokes.

But Sunak wants a ban which sees the legal age for cigarette sales to increase by one year, every year.

It means that people born in or after 2009 will never be able to legally buy ciggies, leading to an effective ban.

The law will not affect those who are allowed to buy cigarettes now.

The government has said that to impose the ban they will introduce £100 on-the-spot fines for shops in England and Wales which sell tobacco products to underage people.

This would be on top of £2,500 fines that courts can already impose.

Who will Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban affect?

The smoking ban, should it pass, would stop anyone under 15 ever legally lighting up.

It will not affect anybody who was born after 2009.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has praised the proposed ban insisting there is “no liberty in addiction”.

She said: “Nicotine robs people of their freedom to choose.

“The vast majority of smokers start when they are young, and three-quarters say that if they could turn back the clock they would not have started.”

Why has Rishi Sunak introduced the new anti-smoking bill?

Sunak is hoping that the ban will eventually lead to a “smoke free UK”.

Number 10 said: “The Prime Minister is in agreement with the Chief Medical Officer that the majority of smokers wish that they had never started and believe that their choices as a result have been taken away by addiction.

“It’s important to take action against the single biggest preventable cause of ill health and the Chief Medical Officer has the Prime Minister’s full support in doing that important work.”

The idea of a rolling age of consent, for the consequence that someone of 35 will be able to buy tobacco, someone of 34 not, and so on and so forth, is at best a curiosity and at worse an absurdity.

Sir John Hayes

However, Simon Clark, boss of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said: “We urge MPs to reject a policy that will fuel the black market and treat future generations of adults like kids.”

Ex-Minister Sir John Hayes said: “The idea of a rolling age of consent, for the consequence that someone of 35 will be able to buy tobacco, someone of 34 not, and so on and so forth, is at best a curiosity and at worse an absurdity.”

When did age restrictions on cigarettes start?

From October 1, 2007, under-18s were banned from buying cigarettes.

This was also the same year the ban on smoking in enclosed public places came into effect.

Before 2007, if you were 16 or over you could buy cigarettes.

This age limit came into force in 1908, meaning before this time you could smoke at any age.

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How many MPs voted in favour of Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban?

On April 17, 2024, MPs voted to back the government’s plans to create a “smoke-free generation” and reduce the number of smoking-related deaths.

The smoking ban was cleared in the Commons by 383 votes to 67.

But Sunak faced a hefty rebellion as Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch led 57 Tories in opposing the plan, declaring adults should be “free to choose” what to do with their own bodies.

A further 106 Conservatives abstained altogether as a rebellion grew against the government’s aim to create the first smoke-free generation.

Mrs Badenoch outlined how the principle of “equality under the law” is a fundamental one as the Prime Minister embarked on a smoke ban.

She said: “We should not treat legally competent adults differently in this way, where people born a day apart will have permanently different rights.

“Among other reasons it will create difficulties with enforcement. This burden will fall not on the state but on private businesses.

“Smoking rates are already declining significantly in the UK and I think there is more we can do to stop children taking up the habit.”

Foreign Office Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan revealed she couldn’t back the plan saying changes are needed to deter young smokers without removing their freedom of choice.

Former Tory chairman Sir Jake Berry compared the ban to something out of China and warned that the government is “addicted” to telling people what to do.

He said: “If you believe in freedom, you have to accept that people have to be free to make bad decisions, as well as good decisions.

“Because if we live in a society where the only decisions we are free to make are ones that the Government tells us we’re free to make, you may as well live in a socialist society, you may as well live in Russia, you may as well live in China.”

But England’s chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, rejected the “pro-choice” arguments against the legislation saying cigarettes were a product “designed to take your choice away”.

He said: “The thing I want people to think about really is the fact that people are trapped in smoking at a very young age.

“Once they become addicted, their choice is taken away. So, if you’re in favour of choice, you should be against something which takes away people’s choices.

“A great majority of smokers wish they had never started, but now they’re in trouble.”