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This Is Why

Is banning smoking "unconservative"?

This Is Why

Sky News

News, Daily News, News Commentary

4.0552 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

'Absolutely nuts' was how former Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Rishi Sunak’s plan to gradually phase out smoking – banning anyone born since the start of 2009 from ever being able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products like vapes.  
  
Liz Truss, who was also briefly prime minister in-between the two men, is also among some critical of the proposal – which she described as 'profoundly unconservative'.  
  
Tories are being given a free vote in the Commons – allowing them to vote with their conscience, not necessarily the government.  
  
But will the policy create a smokefree generation? And what will it mean for Conservative Party ideology?  
  
Niall Paterson looks at the health implications with Alice Wiseman, vice president of The Association of Directors of Public Health, and the politics of the policy with Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby and Tory peer Lord Frost, who disagrees with the planned legislation.  
  
Producer: Emma Rae Woodhouse  
Podcast Promotions Producer: Iona Brunker 
Senior producer: Annie Joyce 
Editors: Philly Beaumont and Paul Stanworth

Transcript

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0:00.0

Trust in politics is broken, so can we get UK politics working again?

0:05.2

That was the last time we were happy.

0:06.8

2012.

0:07.6

I'm Beth Rigby Sky's political editor.

0:10.1

Join me every week with Labour's Jess Phillips and Conservative peer Ruth Davidson for some electoral dysfunction.

0:17.8

This idea of nuance is completely left politics.

0:20.2

Together we'll focus on the policies that

0:22.5

could deliver political satisfaction. Follow electoral dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts.

0:32.0

Liz Truss says no one's talking about it on the doorstep. Boris Johnson says that for the party of Churchill, it is nuts.

0:41.7

Well, Rishi Sunak certainly hasn't been listening to his prime ministerial predecessors

0:46.0

when it comes to his plans to ban anyone born since 2009 from ever legally smoking.

0:52.7

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, currently being debated in Parliament,

0:55.7

would ensure that anyone turning 15 this year would be banned from buying cigarettes.

1:00.9

And mindful of the boom in vaping, he's also hoping to make what manufacturers describe as a smoking cessation technique

1:07.8

far less appealing to children.

1:10.4

Mr Sunak's bill aims to create the UK's first smoke-free generation in a major public health

1:17.1

intervention.

1:18.3

But, Conservative MPs are getting what's called a free vote on the legislation.

1:23.2

They get to choose with their conscience rather than in line with the party whip.

1:28.0

So they won't be ordered to vote with the government.

1:32.2

And a number are publicly planning to rebel, calling it unconservative.

1:36.9

So is this a carefully calibrated public health intervention

...

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