Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to gradually ban smoking in Great Britain. Headwind comes from his own party.
London - In Great Britain, the minimum smoking age is to be raised every year and ultimately tobacco consumption in the kingdom will be ended completely. In order to achieve this, a corresponding bill from the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was on the agenda of Parliament in London on Tuesday. The sale of tobacco products to people born after January 1, 2009 should be fundamentally and completely banned.
Great Britain wants to ban smoking: Prime Minister Sunak wants to pass a law
The minimum age for smoking would de facto be raised by one year every year until the entire population is affected in the long term. “There is no safe age for smoking,” Sunak argued when announcing the legislative initiative. It can be used to guarantee that all children and young people born after January 1, 2009 “can never legally be sold a cigarette and that they and their generation can grow up smoke-free.” The same applies to future generations.
At the same time, the government assures that smoking should not be criminalized. Since the minimum age for buying cigarettes should be gradually raised, anyone “who can legally buy cigarettes today” can continue to do so in the future. Only today's young people should remain non-smokers for the rest of their lives.
Vote on smoking ban in Great Britain: majority votes for second reading
During the vote, the law cleared the first hurdle in the lower house. But there are deep divisions in the ruling party; many members are against the smoking ban. A total of 57 MPs from Sunak's Conservative Party voted against it, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Nevertheless, the majority of parliament was in favor
383 votes to 67 voted for a second reading.
Health Minister Dame Andrea Leadsom told Sky News the bill was “absolutely not control madness” and said: “Once you are addicted to nicotine, freedom of choice is completely lost. A freedom-loving and decisive person would choose to enable children to free themselves from nicotine addiction.”
Currently the minimum age to buy cigarettes in the UK is 18. According to government figures, tobacco use is the most common preventable cause of death and accounts for approximately one in four cancer deaths. According to the information, the costs that smoking causes, especially for the health system, amount to the equivalent of almost 20 billion euros per year.
Sunak only passes smoking ban with Labor votes: Opposition supports new law
In New Zealand, the Labor Party there passed a similar law at the end of 2022, but it was immediately overturned by the conservative successor government. This will probably not happen in Great Britain because, unlike in New Zealand, the law here was introduced by the Conservatives and the opposition Labor Party supports the plan.
Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said, according to the
Guardian
: "Rishi Sunak has jeopardized this bill by allowing a free vote because he is too weak to stand up to the Liz Truss wing of his party. Labor first proposed a phased smoking ban more than a year ago and it is only thanks to Labor MPs that this bill was passed.” (md with afp)