Smoking ban: the return of the nanny state?

Starmer's plan to revive Sunak-era war on tobacco has struck an unsettling chord even with some non-smokers

Man smoking and drinking a pint at an outdoor table
Britain's tough anti-smoking tactics have seen smoking rates plummet to historic lows
(Image credit: Moyo Studio / iStock / Getty Images Plus)

When a newly elected Keir Starmer stood outside No. 10 promising a politics that would "tread more lightly on your lives", it was a promise he seemed certain to break, said Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph. It didn't take long: the PM has now unveiled plans not just to revive Rishi Sunak's age-phased smoking ban – but to extend it, as soon as possible, to anyone lighting up in outdoor spaces such as pub gardens and small parks.

It's an illiberal and unnecessary move, and politically an "unforced error", said Sam Leith in The Spectator. There are no real health or fiscal benefits; it will harm the hospitality sector; and there "isn't a great constituency of people out there who have been passionately campaigning for it to be illegal to stand outside a pub having a fag". It will also only burnish Starmer's reputation as a joyless, "finger-wagging bossy-boots".

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