UK smoking age to rise every year, Rishi Sunak says

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced plans to ban future generations from smoking by steadily increasing the legal age at which they can buy cigarettes, barring anyone born after 2009 from ever taking up the habit if it passes into law.

Speaking during his closing address at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Mr Sunak also announced plans to restrict the flavours DNA packing of disposable vapes but did not announce a full ban on single-use vapes.

“To ease the more fundamental burden of demand on the NHS, we need more preventative care,” he said.

“To stop people from having to go to hospital in the first place we must tackle the single biggest, entirely preventable cause of ill health disability and death and that is smoking.”

He said that the legal smoking age would be increased by one year every year so that a 14-year-old alive today would never be able to buy a cigarette.

But he insisted that current smokers would not be penalised and it was a “matter of conscience” to protect future generations. He also promised a free vote in the House of Commons on the policy, which is likely to be opposed by sections of the Tory party.

Mr Sunak continued that one of the “most worrying trends” was the rise in disposable vapes among young people and that the Government would “bring forward measures to restrict the availability of vapes to our children, looking at flavours packaging displays and disposable vapes”.

A similar policy to effectively outlaw smoking for future generations was brought in by New Zealand last year, and will eventually mean tobacco cannot be sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.

The country’s approach also includes wider measures to make smoking less affordable, including reducing the legal amount of nicotine in tobacco products and forcing them to be sold only through speciality tobacco stores.

The Government aims to get the adult smoking rate down to 5 per cent or under in England by 2030, but there have been warnings this target could be missed without more drastic action.

The Government target of getting the adult smoking rate down to 5% or under in England by 2030 is widely expected to be missed without drastic action.

Office for National Statistics data from 2022 show that around 12.9 per cent of adults, or 6.4 million people, were smokers across the UK, falling from 13.3 per cent the year before.

Labour has also previously proposed the phasing out of cigarette sales, with shadow health secretary Wes Streeting claiming earlier this year the party would consult on a package of measures if they win the next election.