A Labour Government would look into banning the sale of cigarettes over time, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.
The party would consult on ways to tackle smoking in the UK, including outlawing the sale of cigarettes altogether, he told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
“We’re going to consult on a whole package of measures to tackle smoking in this country,” he said.
“The Government is not on course to meet its 2030 target [to reduce average adult smoking prevalence in England to 5 per cent] and one of the things that was recommended to the Government in one of their own reviews was phasing out the sale of cigarettes altogether over time.
“We will be consulting on that and a whole range of other measures.”
Pressed on whether it is a possibility that Labour Government would outlaw the sale, buying and smoking of cigarettes eventually, Mr Streeting said: “The New Zealand government are doing it, we want to see how that works.
“I’m genuinely curious, if we want to get the NHS back on track, we also need to focus on public health and I am curious to know where the voters are on this, to where the country is and what appetite exists for change.
“We are going to have to think radically.”
In December, New Zealand introduced world-first legislation to outlaw smoking for future generations.
The law means that anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products. It will mean the number of people able to buy tobacco will shrink ever year.
The ban is accompanied by other measures to make smoking less affordable and accessible, such as dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and limiting the number of retailers able to sell cigarettes. Only speciality tobacco stores will be able to sell them, rather than corner shops and supermarkets.
The move has been criticised for failing to restrict vape sales, a burgeoning market among young people, and for limiting personal freedoms. Questions have been raised as to whether other harmful substances, such as alcohol, could be next.
Critics, including the ACT party which holds 10 seats in parliament, have also warned that the policy could fuel a black market in tobacco products and kill off small shops.
“No one wants to see people smoke, but the reality is, some will and Labour’s nanny state prohibition is going to cause problems,” said ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden.
The UK Government is committed to reducing the number of smokers and eventually becoming smoke free.
In 2019, the Government published a green paper on preventative health where it announced an ambition for England to become “smoke-free” by 2030. This would be achieved when adult smoking prevalence falls to 5 per cent or less.
But a review in February 2022 found that “without further action, England will miss the smokefree 2030 target by at least seven years, and the poorest areas in society will not meet it until 2044”.
It set out a package of 15 recommendations aimed at supporting the 2030 ambition, which includes four “critical must-dos”: increase investment, raise the age of sale, promote vaping and improve prevention in the NHS.
In 2021, 13.3 per cent of people aged over 18 smoke cigarettes, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was a decrease from 14 per cent in 2020 but still a way off the five per cent target for 2030.
Because banning drugs definitely always works – have a think
This is stupid policy 5hat will just lead to criminals making money selling cigs on black market even more than they do now. Noone gains from it.
Fuck off and stop telling adults how to live their own lives.
Do they have any idea how huge the illegal tobacco trade already is?
Let’s take a look at how prohibition went in the past
At this rate there’s a real chance of seeing a government try to ban alcohol in our lifetimes.
I have decided that Labour really don’t want to win the next election.
This will make a good clickbait headline but no information on how they will help people with what is basically their addiction
They intend to introduce legislation with a date stamp for specific 18 year olds when it will become illegal for sales and receding timeline such that over twenty years or so tobacco sales will pretty much disappear.
All born before the time stamp date will never be able to purchase tobacco products through legal means and those at the upper level will die or May give up via price controls.
All adults today will NOT be effected, through the process will be combined with ever increasing annual duties the point where smoking becomes both illegal by birth age and also unaffordable .
It a similar plan to that already enacted in New Zealand and under discussion in many neighbouring European countries right now .
Great cos every other time prohibition has been tried it’s been a rip-roaring success!!!
Labour try and make a remotely electable policy challenge (impossible)
This man is actually a clown. Where do they get these people from?
I’m 52, and I’ve smoked since I was 13. I was inconvenienced when they banned smoking in pubs, but now, I wouldn’t have it any other way. If a total ban was enacted, I’d be frustrated initially but like to think I’d deal with it and do my lungs (and wallet) a huge favour.
As someone who’s mother died from throat cancer due to smoking (proven), when I was a very young age…..
I fully support the banning of cigarettes.
I understand the “its a personal choice” argument, but it’s not a choice family members get a say in as their loves ones pass away in a horrific manner.
I’m not saying stop it tomorrow, but it absolutly should be phased out.
Oh fuck off. I’m not a smoker but I like the occasional one at a festival or on holiday. Why doesn’t Streeting just bugger off and become the private healthcare lobbyist he was always destined to be.
No you stupid cunt.
1. It won’t work
2. Smokers contribute a lot to the NHS
3. Smokers take less from the NHS
4. It won’t work
Awesome. No need for a pension plan. I can sell cigarettes on the black market.
This is what you get with Blairites: Nanny state bollocks without any of the fun/life enhancing stuff to make up for it
Lame. I don’t smoke but who tf cares?
You tax the shit out of it until it offsets its burden on the NHS as it already does and call it a day. No one likes a nanny state.
Banning cigarette sales in the UK will lead to the sale of illegally imported cigarettes rising. And house fires too.
Cigarettes legally sold in the UK have three self-extinguishing points. They reduce the chances of ignored or forgotten lit cigarettes rolling from ashtrays and causing house fires.
I was going to vote Labour, but Streeting is making it really, really fucking hard.
The man wants to accelerate private healthcare involvement in the NHS (far more than the Tories would). And now this nanny state bullshit (I don’t smoke and would prefer if others did but fuck prohibition – it doesn’t fucking work!!!). Worse still, Starmer’s attitude to drug decriminalisation is further right of the Tories too. And it appears they are further right to the Tories on general immigration too. Labour is now no longer this impotent centrist party (which is acceptable), but is starting to reveal itself as a proper centre right party, closer even to Cameron’s Tory policy than Blair/Brown.
I used to be one of those people who chastised others for not voting. But I get it now.
A California style ban wouldn’t be bad at all – only smoke tobacco on your own property.
It’s a pointless idea, I only now know 2 people that smoke in my social circle. I hardly see anyone smoke when I’m out and about now, compared to say 20 years ago. Less people are smoking now than before. So just let it take its natural course and smoking will be a thing of the past.
Whether or not you like smoking this is a seriously dumb as fuck idea. Why is Labour full of such total morons. It really goes to show how out of touch they are with reality.
It perfectly illustrates that Labour for a long time hasn’t represented ordinary people. They’ve had a succession of unrelateble middle class leaders who come up with dumb policies. They are pretty much to blame for the conservatives being in power.
Smoking cannabis is already illegal and look how well that’s working
25 comments
A Labour Government would look into banning the sale of cigarettes over time, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.
The party would consult on ways to tackle smoking in the UK, including outlawing the sale of cigarettes altogether, he told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
“We’re going to consult on a whole package of measures to tackle smoking in this country,” he said.
“The Government is not on course to meet its 2030 target [to reduce average adult smoking prevalence in England to 5 per cent] and one of the things that was recommended to the Government in one of their own reviews was phasing out the sale of cigarettes altogether over time.
“We will be consulting on that and a whole range of other measures.”
Pressed on whether it is a possibility that Labour Government would outlaw the sale, buying and smoking of cigarettes eventually, Mr Streeting said: “The New Zealand government are doing it, we want to see how that works.
“I’m genuinely curious, if we want to get the NHS back on track, we also need to focus on public health and I am curious to know where the voters are on this, to where the country is and what appetite exists for change.
“We are going to have to think radically.”
In December, New Zealand introduced world-first legislation to outlaw smoking for future generations.
The law means that anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products. It will mean the number of people able to buy tobacco will shrink ever year.
The ban is accompanied by other measures to make smoking less affordable and accessible, such as dramatically reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and limiting the number of retailers able to sell cigarettes. Only speciality tobacco stores will be able to sell them, rather than corner shops and supermarkets.
The move has been criticised for failing to restrict vape sales, a burgeoning market among young people, and for limiting personal freedoms. Questions have been raised as to whether other harmful substances, such as alcohol, could be next.
Critics, including the ACT party which holds 10 seats in parliament, have also warned that the policy could fuel a black market in tobacco products and kill off small shops.
“No one wants to see people smoke, but the reality is, some will and Labour’s nanny state prohibition is going to cause problems,” said ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden.
The UK Government is committed to reducing the number of smokers and eventually becoming smoke free.
In 2019, the Government published a green paper on preventative health where it announced an ambition for England to become “smoke-free” by 2030. This would be achieved when adult smoking prevalence falls to 5 per cent or less.
But a review in February 2022 found that “without further action, England will miss the smokefree 2030 target by at least seven years, and the poorest areas in society will not meet it until 2044”.
It set out a package of 15 recommendations aimed at supporting the 2030 ambition, which includes four “critical must-dos”: increase investment, raise the age of sale, promote vaping and improve prevention in the NHS.
In 2021, 13.3 per cent of people aged over 18 smoke cigarettes, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was a decrease from 14 per cent in 2020 but still a way off the five per cent target for 2030.
Because banning drugs definitely always works – have a think
This is stupid policy 5hat will just lead to criminals making money selling cigs on black market even more than they do now. Noone gains from it.
Fuck off and stop telling adults how to live their own lives.
Do they have any idea how huge the illegal tobacco trade already is?
Let’s take a look at how prohibition went in the past
At this rate there’s a real chance of seeing a government try to ban alcohol in our lifetimes.
I have decided that Labour really don’t want to win the next election.
This will make a good clickbait headline but no information on how they will help people with what is basically their addiction
They intend to introduce legislation with a date stamp for specific 18 year olds when it will become illegal for sales and receding timeline such that over twenty years or so tobacco sales will pretty much disappear.
All born before the time stamp date will never be able to purchase tobacco products through legal means and those at the upper level will die or May give up via price controls.
All adults today will NOT be effected, through the process will be combined with ever increasing annual duties the point where smoking becomes both illegal by birth age and also unaffordable .
It a similar plan to that already enacted in New Zealand and under discussion in many neighbouring European countries right now .
Great cos every other time prohibition has been tried it’s been a rip-roaring success!!!
Labour try and make a remotely electable policy challenge (impossible)
This man is actually a clown. Where do they get these people from?
I’m 52, and I’ve smoked since I was 13. I was inconvenienced when they banned smoking in pubs, but now, I wouldn’t have it any other way. If a total ban was enacted, I’d be frustrated initially but like to think I’d deal with it and do my lungs (and wallet) a huge favour.
As someone who’s mother died from throat cancer due to smoking (proven), when I was a very young age…..
I fully support the banning of cigarettes.
I understand the “its a personal choice” argument, but it’s not a choice family members get a say in as their loves ones pass away in a horrific manner.
I’m not saying stop it tomorrow, but it absolutly should be phased out.
Oh fuck off. I’m not a smoker but I like the occasional one at a festival or on holiday. Why doesn’t Streeting just bugger off and become the private healthcare lobbyist he was always destined to be.
No you stupid cunt.
1. It won’t work
2. Smokers contribute a lot to the NHS
3. Smokers take less from the NHS
4. It won’t work
Awesome. No need for a pension plan. I can sell cigarettes on the black market.
This is what you get with Blairites: Nanny state bollocks without any of the fun/life enhancing stuff to make up for it
Lame. I don’t smoke but who tf cares?
You tax the shit out of it until it offsets its burden on the NHS as it already does and call it a day. No one likes a nanny state.
Banning cigarette sales in the UK will lead to the sale of illegally imported cigarettes rising. And house fires too.
Cigarettes legally sold in the UK have three self-extinguishing points. They reduce the chances of ignored or forgotten lit cigarettes rolling from ashtrays and causing house fires.
I was going to vote Labour, but Streeting is making it really, really fucking hard.
The man wants to accelerate private healthcare involvement in the NHS (far more than the Tories would). And now this nanny state bullshit (I don’t smoke and would prefer if others did but fuck prohibition – it doesn’t fucking work!!!). Worse still, Starmer’s attitude to drug decriminalisation is further right of the Tories too. And it appears they are further right to the Tories on general immigration too. Labour is now no longer this impotent centrist party (which is acceptable), but is starting to reveal itself as a proper centre right party, closer even to Cameron’s Tory policy than Blair/Brown.
I used to be one of those people who chastised others for not voting. But I get it now.
A California style ban wouldn’t be bad at all – only smoke tobacco on your own property.
It’s a pointless idea, I only now know 2 people that smoke in my social circle. I hardly see anyone smoke when I’m out and about now, compared to say 20 years ago. Less people are smoking now than before. So just let it take its natural course and smoking will be a thing of the past.
Whether or not you like smoking this is a seriously dumb as fuck idea. Why is Labour full of such total morons. It really goes to show how out of touch they are with reality.
It perfectly illustrates that Labour for a long time hasn’t represented ordinary people. They’ve had a succession of unrelateble middle class leaders who come up with dumb policies. They are pretty much to blame for the conservatives being in power.
Smoking cannabis is already illegal and look how well that’s working