A landmark generational smoking ban is poised to become law in the UK after successfully navigating a Conservative challenge in the House of Lords.
Peers overwhelmingly rejected a Tory-led attempt to block the Tobacco and Vapes Bill's cut-off measure, which instead proposed raising the legal age for tobacco sales in England and Wales to 21.
The Conservatives warned that, despite warnings, the new legislation could lead to an "unregulated, untaxed criminal bonanza".
The amendment was defeated by 246 votes to 78, a majority of 168. Most backing the change were Conservative, alongside two Liberal Democrats.
The legislation aims to create a "smoke-free generation" by preventing anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from legally smoking, thereby progressively increasing the legal age limit over time.
The bill also seeks to prohibit the sale of all vaping and nicotine products to under-18s. It further grants ministers powers to regulate vape flavours, packaging, and display to diminish their appeal to children.
A total ban on vape advertising and sponsorship, including displays seen by children and young people such as on buses, in cinemas and in shop windows, is included in the proposals.
In addition, the Government could restrict cigarette filter sales, following a recent amendment.
A gradual smoking ban was originally proposed by Rishi Sunak’s government in the face of stiff opposition from within his own party.
The legislation fell when the then Tory prime minister called a snap election, but it was subsequently revived under Labour.
Opposing the measure at Westminster, Conservative former Home Office minister Lord Murray of Blidworth said: “A generational ban may sound like a progressive step to protect public health, but it is de facto prohibition, and there remains no evidence anywhere in the world that prohibition of a long-standing legal product has ever worked.
“In time, this policy will result in the termination of a legally controlled, highly regulated, highly taxed industry, which will be replaced by an illegal, uncontrolled, unregulated, untaxed criminal bonanza.”
He added: “The state should not remove for ever that freedom to choose simply because a person happens to have been born on or after January 1 2009.”
But leading lawyer and independent crossbencher Lord Pannick said: “I am not persuaded by the freedom arguments. We ban heroin. We require that people wear seat belts, even if they are over the age of 21 and they may take a different view.”
However, opposing the ban, Conservative former health secretary Lord Clarke of Nottingham, who has smoked for around 70 years, said: “I am sure it is well intentioned. It is another attempt to reinforce the already very successful efforts we have made in this country to reduce the incidence of smoking.
“But it is faintly ridiculous and slightly preposterous, and, given the history of the decline of smoking in this country, it is quite unnecessary.”
Disagreeing with his Tory colleague, Lord Young of Cookham said: “Yes, there is a libertarian argument, but in my view there is a much broader benefit in moving to a smoke-free country.”
But Conservative former Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom said: “The Government’s own impact assessment states that a one-off increase in the age of sale to 21 would be just as effective in the short term at reducing smoking rates, compared with a generational smoking ban.”
Former NHS boss and independent crossbencher Lord Stevens of Birmingham, who is chairman of Cancer Research UK, said: “To weaken what has the potential to be one of the most fundamental health-improving pieces of legislation this Parliament has ever enacted would in my judgment be a grave error.”
Former president of the Royal College of GPs Baroness Gerada, who smoked for more than 30 years before giving up, said: “We have to focus on prevention, which is what the Bill is about.”
Non-affiliated peer Baroness Fox of Buckley said: “I do not want more people to smoke, but I also think that, in a free society, we have to give a certain degree of room for people to make choices – even the wrong choices.”
Welcoming the ban, Liberal Democrat Earl Russell said: “It is essential that we make progress to improve the public health of people in this country.”
Conservative frontbencher Earl Howe argued it was “an opportunity to make a transformational change” in an important area of public health.
Putting himself at odds with Lord Murray, the peer added: “I hope he will understand that it ill behoves me, as my party’s spokesman for health and social care and as a former health minister, to pass up what I see as a golden opportunity to do something imaginative and radical, which is why I support the Government in their excellent ambitions.”
Health minister Baroness Merron said: Stopping young people from ever starting to smoke is the easiest way to reduce smoking rates.”
She added: “Modelling shows that creating a smoke-free generation is expected to help reduce the smoking rate of 14 to 30 year-olds to near zero by 2050.
“Over the next 50 years, that will save tens of thousands of lives and avoid up to 130,000 cases of lung cancer, strokes and heart disease. For me, these are prizes worth having.”
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