Nearly two thirds of people - including smokers and non-smokers - are against the new smoking policy set to become law next year (2026), a new poll has revealed.
Millions of Britons oppose the new generational smoking ban, which means that anyone born on or after January 1 in 2009 will never be legally allowed to buy cigarettes.
According to new polling by Whitestone Insight for non-partisan, centre-right, classically liberal campaign group The Freedom Association - even among Labour voters only one in three support the idea.
In fact, almost twice as many people support either keeping the law as it is or increasing the minimum age for both smoking and vaping to 21. The greatest support for a generational ban comes from the well-off and those who’ve never smoked.
By banning the legal sale of tobacco to everyone born after 2008, the proposed move effectively makes smoking for increasingly large swathes of the population illegal despite demand being unlikely to vanish.
It means a decade from now, a 27-year-old could legally buy cigarettes - but a 26-year-old could not.
In the new poll, 29% of people said the law should remain unchanged with smoking and vaping banned for under-18s. Nearly as many - 26% - favoured increasing the minimum age for smoking and vaping to 21.
The Government’s preferred option of a ratcheting ban on buying tobacco as the years roll by won the support of just 30%, meaning that a comfortable majority – 55% – want it scrapped.
David Campbell Bannerman (left), chairman of The Freedom Association, said: “It looks like the generational smoking ban has gone up in smoke. Nearly two thirds of the public are opposed to what is an unworkable and unenforceable proposed law.
“Shopkeepers have better things to do than quizzing middle-aged men about whether they’re old enough to smoke.”
“Shopkeepers, who face fines otherwise, have better things to do than quizzing middle-aged men about whether they’re old enough to smoke. Yet this is where this laughable policy is leading us.
“On top of that, the EU is making it clear the ban is illegal in Northern Ireland because it’s still subject to single market rules. Keir Starmer should drop the whole idea.”
The Institute of Economic Affairs has warned that demand will “get pushed underground,” driving black-market tobacco sales.
One submission to MPs considering the Bill earlier this year cautioned that the “entire UK tobacco market will be pushed underground and into the hands of criminals,” with profits flowing to organised-crime groups rather than legitimate retailers.
Meanwhile, two thirds of Reform voters believe the ban to be ‘unworkable’. Concern about rising crime in the aftermath of the Bill is a priority for many people.
Voters in the Red Wall (North East, North West, East and West Midlands) are most concerned about the potential impact of illegal cigarette trading by criminal gangs following the introduction of the proposed smoking ban.
Lord Strathcarron, who sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords, said: “Like many sensible-minded people in Westminster, I had hoped against hope that the Labour Government had realised that it was an unworkable mess that runs roughshod over personal liberty, places ridiculous burdens on small independent shops and risks an explosion in criminality.”
No comments yet