Fundamental right to smoke fags, booze and gamble ‘eroded’ by ‘anti-fun’ Labour, Nigel Farage warns
FAGS, booze and gambling are fundamental rights being eroded by “anti-fun” Labour, Nigel Farage has warned.
The Reform leader accused PM Sir Keir Starmer of trampling on the British tradition of “live and let live”.
He hit out as MPs today vote for the final time to raise the smoking age to eventually phase out cigarettes, as well as clamping down on vapes.
Writing in The Sun, he branded it “deeply illiberal” and “unworkable”.
Ministers are also imposing a new levy on gambling companies of up to one per cent of their revenue to raise £100million.
And Labour has voted through a bill which will force pub bosses to monitor customer’s banter to avoid offence.
A poll for the Adam Smith Institute last week showed more than half of Brits think Labour is too “nanny state”.
Pint-loving, race-going smoker Mr Farage blamed “high tax and red tape” for decimating the hospitality and betting industries.
Labour waging war on Brits' fun
By Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader
IT turns out the majority of Brits believe Labour is anti-fun!
That’s according to polling from the Adam Smith Institute, revealed in this very paper.
Anyone who’s been to their local recently won’t be surprised.
High taxes and red tape are making it harder to enjoy a pint.
But, rather than fix this mess, Keir Starmer is doubling down on the nanny-state agenda.
He is planning to make pub landlords responsible for what their customers say in their venues — or risk legal consequences.
If he gets his way, landlords will have to act like the fun police, kicking out anyone who makes a joke in case it might offend someone.
But Labour’s war on fun, just like the Tories’, doesn’t end there.
Decades of high tax and red tape are crushing our world-renowned hospitality industry.
Pubs, bars and clubs are not just businesses, they are the beating hearts of communities.
Any decent government would protect them. Not this lot.
Rachel Reeves’ hikes to employers’ National Insurance and the minimum wage have piled even more pressure on struggling venues. Some have shut their doors for good.
But it’s not just nightlife that Labour takes issue with.
The party is coming for smokers and vapers, starting with today’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, doubling down on the Tories’ generational smoking ban.
This ban is obviously unworkable. We’d end up in a bizarre situation where a 30-year-old could legally buy cigarettes, but a 29-year-old could not.
And just look at the crime wave happening in Australia, where they’ve slapped incredibly high taxes on cigarettes. Tobacco hasn’t gone away — it’s now in the hands of the criminal gangs.
But, more importantly, the ban is deeply illiberal. It goes against Britain’s long-standing ‘live and let live’ tradition. In this country, we believe in freedom to make our own choices, even if others disagree.
This kind of patronising thinking is all too common in Westminster.
Whether they’re slapping new levies on casinos and bookmakers or strangling pubs in red tape, politicians seem to forget how their ideology affects our day-to-day lives.
It’s no wonder Labour voters are turning to us. Reform UK is the only party serious about protecting your right to enjoy a pint, a cigarette and to stick a tenner on a football match.