MPs will vote on Rishi Sunak’s landmark bill to create a “smokefree generation” in the House of Commons later today.
The Prime Minister has granted Conservatives a free vote on the issue, with some expected to reject the plan over concerns it limits people’s freedom of choice.
But with Labour expected to support it, the bill is likely to pass its first legislative hurdle.
The plan would make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January 2009 and was announced by Sunak in his speech to the Conservative Party conference last year.
Speaking this morning, England’s chief medical officer rejected “pro-choice” arguments from Tory MPs opposed to Rishi Sunak’s plans to ban young people from ever smoking.
Professor Sir Chris Whitty said cigarettes were “designed to take your choice away” and resistance to the plan – including from Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – was “surprising”.
According to the Guardian, House of Commons leader and former Tory leadership contender Penny Mordaunt is also said to be wavering on whether to support the measure.
Sir Chris told the BBC smoking was a “really serious health problem” and called it “doubly problematic [because] the great majority of smokers wish they had never started.
“But they become addicted at an early age and then they’re trapped and their choice has been taken away by that addiction.
“One of the reasons why the argument ‘if you’re pro-choice, you’re in favour of cigarettes’ is so surprising, because this is a product designed to take your choice away from you.”
Truss has said the ban is “profoundly unconservative”, while Johnson described it as “nuts”.
Conservative MPs have been granted a free vote on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, meaning they will not have to follow party orders – known as whipping – to back it, despite the legislation being expected to form a core part of Sunak’s legacy following his premiership.
Former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke – who argued in January that the Prime Minister needed to resign – said: “We need a lot more liberalism and a lot less statism.
“Let’s educate young people about the harm of tobacco. Let’s make it unattractive by banning glamorising adverts and taxing it. But let’s not ban it. An enforcement nightmare and a slippery slope – alcohol next?”
Doctors and health charities urged MPs to back the proposals, which would ensure that nobody aged 15 or under today would ever be able to legally buy tobacco products.
As well as raising the smoking age every year, the legislation includes provisions that will regulate the display, contents, flavours and packaging of vapes and nicotine products.
According to the government, creating a “smokefree generation” could prevent more than 470,000 cases of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other diseases by 2100.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “Though Tory MPs may oppose this measure, Labour will not play politics with public health. Labour will vote through this Bill, so that young people today are even less likely to smoke than they are to vote Tory.”
