Rishi Sunak’s flagship smoking ban bill passes first hurdle despite cabinet opposition
Rishi Sunak’s flagship smoking ban has passed its first parliamentary hurdle despite opposition from within his cabinet – as Labour backed the bill.
Mr Sunak wants to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes annually in a bid to phase out the habit, as well as restrict the sales of vaping products.
The proposals would make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January 2009 – with the prime minister hoping to create a “smoke-free” generation.
Conservative MPs were given a free vote in the Commons this evening, meaning they were allowed to oppose the government if they wished without facing repercussions.
The House of Commons voted in favour of the plan by 383 votes to 67.
Follow the latest politics news
There was a sizeable Tory rebellion and a significant number of abstentions.
Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary and a former leadership contender, said she would not support the legislation before the vote.
Ms Badenoch – who has also been tipped to run to replace Mr Sunak if he loses the next election – said on social media that while she agrees with the plan’s intentions, giving adults “born a day apart… permanently different rights” is an issue with the policy – as is the practicality of asking businesses to enforce it.
Other ministers who voted against the bill included Andrew Griffith, Steve Baker, Julia Lopez, Lee Rowley and Alex Burghart, as well as Conservative deputy chair Jonathan Gullis.
In total, 57 Conservative MPs voted against Mr Sunak’s plans, with 106 abstaining.
One such abstention was Anne Marie-Trevelyan, a Foreign Office minister, who said ahead of time that she would not support the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
Another was Commons leader – and another party leadership hopeful – Penny Mordaunt.
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick was one of those former ministers who signalled beforehand his intention to vote against the government’s proposed smoking ban.
“I believe in personal freedom,” he posted on X. “Let’s educate more and ban less.”
Other senior Conservatives – like former prime minister Liz Truss, former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and former home secretary Suella Braverman – all said before the vote they did not support the bill, and they all voted against it.
Another former Tory prime minister, Boris Johnson, has also criticised the plan – calling it “mad” and “nuts”.
Labour MPs were whipped to support the prime minister’s plans, with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting speaking in support of the policy in the Commons debate ahead of the vote.
Read more:
How would the ban work?
Ms Truss was one of the Conservatives leading the charge against the bill. Pic: AP
The arguments within the Conservative Party centred around whether the ban impinged on civil liberties at the cost of health.
Some, like current Health Secretary Victoria Atkins and former office holder Sajid Javid, said smoking removes choice as young people get addicted and cannot choose to stop – before noting the high costs to the NHS caused by smokers.
Smoking kills about 80,000 people a year and costs the NHS and the economy an estimated £17bn annually.
The other side of the argument – put forward by former prime minister Ms Truss – said the bill would limit people’s freedoms, and trying to protect people from themselves is problematic, before warning of potential further bans on products like alcohol and sugar.
Mr Sunak announced his plans at his party’s conference in Manchester last year, saying it would mean someone aged 14 would “never legally be sold a cigarette and that they and their generation can grow up smoke-free”.
On vapes, he stated his desire to restrict the way they are marketed, including looking at flavours, packaging displays and disposable vapes.
At the time, a similar plan for a rising smoking age ban in New Zealand was touted as an example for the UK to follow – but this restriction was scrapped before it came into force in the country.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
? Listen above then tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts ?
Today marked the second reading of the smoking bill, and so the first time the whole House of Commons voted on it.
It will now be considered and potentially amended by MPs, before also going through scrutiny in the House of Lords.
Thailand’s five-year tax break on crypto capital gains looks like a dream for investors, but the fine print reveals a strategic push for surveillance, platform control and regulatory dominance.
The TON Foundation could have avoided its golden visa controversy in the UAE with a brief legal review, a local lawyer told Cointelegraph.
Politics
Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike