‘The Tory’s generational smoking ban is a gimmick – unlike Labour’s plan for a smoke-free Britain’

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At the Conservative Party conference last year, alongside the decision to announce the cancellation of HS2 while standing in the city it was supposed to serve, Rishi Sunak announced his plans for a “generational ban” on smoking.

This would mean that the age at which adults can buy tobacco products would rise every year, so that children born after 2009 will never legally be able to purchase cigarettes or other tobacco products.

On the surface, the policy looks like a sensible idea. It is right that the Government takes action to deter young people from smoking- the last Labour government raised the legal age at which people can buy cigarettes from 16 to 18, and the percentage of the public who continue to smoke, from all age groups, has fallen year on year.

Labour also led the way on the smoking ban and on cigarette advertising, showing what can be achieved by a mission-focused government with a clear strategy and determination to succeed.

Great progress has also been made in helping people to switch from smoking tobacco to less harmful alternatives, such as vaping and heat-not-burn, and Labour has a clear roadmap to a smoke-free Britain.

Our plan includes working with local councils and the NHS to promote vapes as a smoking alternative, while also banning vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children. Labour’s commitment to a smoke-free Britain is beyond question, and the party has a clear and practical vision to achieve this worthy goal.

So why has Rishi Sunak brought forward this policy, and why now, at the end of his time in 10 Downing Street, at the end of 14 wasted years of government? In short, unlike Labour’s comprehensive plan to tackle smoking, the generational ban is, like many of this Prime Minister’s policies, a gimmick.

The Conservatives are out of ideas and, after 14 years of inaction, have realised how little they have to show for their time in office. So the race is on, for something they can point to as evidence of delivery, and for some kind of legacy for the worst Conservative Prime Minister since the last one.

The problem with policies like this, rushed through quickly for the wrong reasons, is always the unintended consequences. When I speak to shopkeepers in my constituency, this is one of the policies they are most concerned about. Everyone agrees that we should do more to prevent young people from taking up smoking, but is a policy which will one day result in a 47-year-old being asked for ID to prove they are not a 46-year-old the most sensible way to achieve this?

No thought appears to have been given to the pressure this places on retailers, who will be asked to determine not whether someone is an adult, but whether they were born after 2009, a moving target as time goes on. The fines incurred if they make a mistake are considerable- up to £2500 per sale. It is clear that this will create unnecessary extra stress for the small businesses which form the backbone of our local communities.

Similarly, no consideration appears to have been given to how this policy will affect the retail staff who are asked to implement it. Retail workers already face unacceptable treatment from customers on a daily basis, with enforcing age-restricted sales requirements having long been identified as a trigger for abusive behaviour and violence.

USDAW’s 2022 survey of retail workers found that as many as 16% of incidents involving abuse or violence involved age-restricted sales, with only shoplifting being responsible for more incidents. Most concerningly of all, this figure is low compared to previous years, though it is unclear whether things are improving, or the overall picture is worsening, with new triggers making up a higher percentage of total incidents.

What is clear, is that the implementation of a generational ban will only worsen the situation for retail workers, as it will become more and more difficult each year to serve customers without being required by law to ask for ID to prove, not that they are an adult, but whether or not they were born after 2009. This is, above all else, an unnecessary and unworkable way to deal with the problem of young people accessing tobacco products.

Moreover, a generational ban will increase the illegal tobacco trade. We know from the latest ONS data that consumers spent over £4 billion on illegal tobacco which is double the amount spent on narcotics during the same time. We also know through HMRC data that since the turn of the century the government has lost over £54 billion in revenue to the illegal tobacco market. The government needs to make sure that trading standards are fully resourced to ensure they can enforce the law.

So, what else could be done?

First of all, the Government could put proper resourcing into enforcing the laws it already has before seeking to create new ones. Underage sales of both tobacco products and vapes remain a serious issue around the country, with a minority of unscrupulous retailers outcompeting those who play by the rules by making sales that should not be made. This is wrong and with better funding for local councils and enforcement agencies, could be prevented. Not to mention that it is futile to raise the age to purchase these products when they are already making their way to underage customers today.

And if we are to raise the age at which people can purchase tobacco products, we should do this properly, like the last Labour government did in 2007, rather than indulging Rishi Sunak’s political gimmick.’

Raising the age at which people can purchase tobacco products to 21, for example, would reduce the number of young people taking up smoking at the age they are most likely to form a lifelong habit- four in five smokers start by the time they are 20 years old. An age increase to 21 would also fit within the current Challenge 25 policy in place at most retailers, and be an easy, seamless change for retailers to make.

This is practical, common-sense policymaking, and while it may not be fashionable or headline-grabbing enough for our current Prime Minister, it is the sort of policymaking I want to see our next Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, promote in government.

This article is presented as a contribution to public discussion by JTI.