MPs vote for smoking ban despite Tories’ division
over policy
Rishi Sunak suffers blow to his authority as 57 of his
own MPs vote against his plan and over 100 abstain
Eleni
Courea Political correspondent
Tue 16 Apr
2024 20.30 BST
A ban on
smoking for future generations moved a step closer last night, but Rishi Sunak
suffered a blow to his authority after dozens of Conservative MPs voted against
it.
The House
of Commons voted by 383 to 67 in favour of the prime minister’s plan to make it
illegal for anyone born in 2009 or later to buy tobacco products in the UK.
The
legislation, which would effectively ban smoking for future generations by
raising the legal age every year, is seen by the prime minister’s allies as a
key part of his political legacy.
However the
result, voted against by 57 Tory MPs – including Kemi Badenoch, a likely future
leadership contender, and five other ministers – underlined the depth of
division within the party even over Sunak’s flagship policies.
Labour has
thrown its weight behind the plan, which was unveiled at the Tory party
conference in October, ensuring that it sailed through the Commons. More than
100 Tory MPs abstained, although some of them will have been absent from the
Commons for reasons unrelated to the vote.
Badenoch,
the business secretary, was the only cabinet minister to vote against the
legislation. She said before the vote that she had “significant concerns”
because the legislation meant that “people born a day apart will have
permanently different rights”.
She told
LBC after the vote: “I don’t think the end justifies the means. The principle I
was against was treating adults differently and how that would be enforced. It
didn’t feel right to me.”
Liz Truss
speaks in parliament during smoking ban debate – she is wearing a red dress and
standing among a small cluster of other MPs in an otherwise empty-looking House
of Commons
Five other
ministers – Julia Lopez, Alex Burghart, Steve Baker, Lee Rowley and Andrew
Griffith – also voted against it. Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, was among
dozens of Tory MPs who abstained.
Conservative
MPs were given a free vote although Andrea Leadsom, the junior health minister
in charge of the bill, contacted some of them to make the government’s case.
Opposition
to the plans was led by the former prime minister Liz Truss, who told the
Commons she was “very concerned” it was “emblematic of a technocratic
establishment in this country that wants to limit people’s freedom”.
Tory
critics said the proposal would result in adults being treated differently
according to their age, and it was a slippery slope that could lead to bans on
fast food or alcohol. Some MPs argued the plan would encourage an illegal
tobacco trade and that it would be difficult to enforce.
Among those
who voted against the ban were Truss, the former business secretary Simon
Clarke, the former home secretary Suella Braverman, and the former immigration
minister Robert Jenrick.
Several
Tory MPs with links to the vaping industry spoke in opposition to the bill.
Mark Eastwood, the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for
responsible vaping, argued it would push people from vaping to smoking. Adam
Afriyie, who received an award last year from a vaping industry group, said he
could not support the proposal because it would treat adults differently
according to their age.
The
legislation would not ban vaping but it would introduce greater restrictions,
especially on marketing vapes at young people.
The plan
for a smoking ban is modelled on proposals in New Zealand, which were repealed
earlier this year, before they took effect, by a new rightwing government in
Wellington.
Senior
Tories including Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, and Steve Brine, the
chair of the health select committee, spoke in favour of the legislation and
said it would relieve pressure on the NHS and free future generations from
smoking addictions. Polling by Savanta published on Tuesday suggested that 64%
of Conservative voters were in favour of the plan.
“Can we
honestly say that this drug enhances personal liberty and freedom? It’s a
nonsense argument – anyone who makes that argument, they’re choosing to stand
up for big tobacco against the interests of their constituents,” Javid told
MPs.
The
Guardian revealed this week that tobacco firms were lobbying politicians to
oppose the legislation and instead support raising the smoking age from 18 to
21 in an attempt to avoid an outright ban.
“Given what
we know it is of course right to protect future generations from this drug and
this addiction. The freedom from pain, from disease and inequality, is one of
the greatest freedoms that there is,” Javid said.
Victoria
Atkins, the health secretary, told the Commons before the vote that there was
“no liberty in addiction”. “Nicotine robs people of their freedom to choose,”
she said. “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.”
Labour used
Tory opponents’ arguments to mock the government, and pointed to former Tory
ministers’ links to tobacco companies.
Wes
Streeting, the shadow health secretary, told the Commons: “Of all the policies
the Conservatives have adopted from the Labour party in the past few years,
nothing shows our dominance in the battle of ideas more than this latest
capitulation.
“We happily
align ourselves with big health in defence of the nation and we are only too
happy to defend the health secretary against the siren voices of big tobacco we
see gathered around our former prime minister in the corner of the chamber.
“A stopped
clock is right twice a day, and I find myself agreeing with the former prime
minister. This is absolutely an un-Conservative bill, it is a Labour bill, and
we are delighted to see the government bring it forward.”
After the
vote Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said:
“Parliament has today begun the process of consigning smoking to the ‘ash heap’
of history.
“However,
this is only the first step, the bill must now go through committee and another
vote before going through the same process in the House of Lords. The passage
of the bill should be expedited to ensure it is on the statute book before the
general election.”
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