The tobacco lobby will not stop us phasing out cigarettes

Smoking is an addiction people don’t have a choice

December 5, 2023 10:30 pm

I started smoking with school friends when I was just 14 years old.

Thankfully, I managed to kick the habit by the time I turned 20, but I know how tempting it is to experiment as a young person.

Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer, causing around 80,000 deaths in the UK per year,1 in 4 cancer deaths, and costing the economy and wider society £17bn each year. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users, and every parent, even when they are addicted themselves, will not want their own children to smoke.

So we must take the necessary long-term decisions to safeguard an the next generation from the harms of smoking as they grow older.

I knew the dangers of smoking – we all do. However, at such a young age, the serious health repercussions of the habit didn’t seem all that real. Nicotine is seriously addictive, and the industry often cynically targets children.

Four in five smokers will have started by the time they’re 20 years old. And most of those people try desperately to quit later in life.

They try to quit for their loved ones; they try to quit to get fitter or to save money; they try to quit because they know that smoking kills.

I’m pleased to say that under this Government’s plans, things will be very different for the 14-year-olds of today.

We will soon introduce a new law to stop children who are 14 this year or younger from ever legally being sold cigarettes, to create the first “smoke-free generation”.

This will make it an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products – effectively raising the smoking age by a year each year.

Put simply, this will save tens of thousands of lives and save the NHS billions of pounds.

There is also a big rise in vaping among children, with vaping by children age 16-17 tripling in the last three years and one in five children aged 11-17 having tried vaping in 2023. That’s why we’ve also set out plans to tackle this, which includes issuing on-the-spot fines for those irresponsibly selling tobacco and vape products to our kids.

A public consultation has been running for eight weeks on these historic plans, seeking views from parents, teachers, teenagers, healthcare professionals, academics and others.

Today, that consultation draws to a close. It has so far received a mammoth response, with roughly 25,000 people nationwide giving us their opinions.

I want to thank each and every person who has contributed. Your views will help us to shape this landmark policy.

The responses show us how incredibly popular this proposal is and that the majority of the Great British public are behind it. We know that the tobacco industry, on the other hand, is active in trying to undermine the policy.

The tobacco industry will talk about free adult choice, but we all know there is no freedom of choice once deadly addiction sets in. The industry has a long history of trying to obstruct and delay tobacco reforms. But we have absolutely no intention of going back on our word.

In the coming weeks, the Government will publish the response to the consultation and confirm the next steps we will take to ensure our proposals become law as quickly as possible.

I’m proud to say that the UK will now be the first country in the world to introduce such a law.

These historic plans could have prevented me from lighting that first cigarette when I was a kid.

Let’s get this right, and act fast, to prevent today’s children from doing the same.

The Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care)