Leadership hopefuls defy Sunak over smoking ban
Nearly half of Tory MPS, including Mordaunt and Badenoch, refuse to back PM’S legislation
NEARLY half of Tory MPS, including five leadership hopefuls, have failed to support Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban.
A total of 165 Conservatives either abstained or voted against the legislation, with critics warning against the “health police” that want to limit people’s freedom.
But the Prime Minister’s legislation passed comfortably with Labour support. Across the House, 383 voted for the ban and 67 did not, meaning the Bill passed comfortably. While 180 Tories supported the legislation, 59 voted against and 106 did not vote.
Kemi Badenoch, widely seen as a future candidate for the Tory leadership, was among those to vote against the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
Other leadership hopefuls Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick also voted against the Bill at its second reading, while Penny Mordaunt and Priti Patel abstained.
In total, six ministers voted against the scheme, which Mr Sunak sees as a major part of his legacy. The Business Secretary did not speak in the debate, but said online that she could not support legislation where “people born a day apart will have permanently different rights”.
The Bill – announced by the Prime Minister at last year’s Tory conference – will make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone who turned 15 this year or younger, with the aim of creating a “smoke-free” generation.
Victoria Atkins, the Health Secretary, said: “I totally understand the concerns of fellow Conservatives. We are not in the habit of banning things... and so we will only bring these powers in when we are convinced… that there is no liberty in addiction. Nicotine robs people of their freedom to choose. The vast majority of smokers start when they are young, and three-quarters say that if they could turn back the clock they would not have started.”
MPS were given a free vote on the Bill so the 59 Tories who voted against it were not officially classed as acting in rebellion. However, the scale of the revolt will be seen by many as an indicator of dissatisfaction with Mr Sunak’s plans and the potential direction of the party under a future leader.
It comes 11 years after a free vote in which MPS legalised same-sex marriage. At the time, 133 Conservative MPS voted against the proposals backed by then prime minister Lord Cameron.
Mrs Badenoch tweeted before yesterday’s vote: “I’m not a smoker and think it is an unpleasant habit, costly for both the individual and society. The PM’S intentions with this Bill are honest and mark him out as a leader who doesn’t duck the thorny issues. I agree with his policy intentions but I have significant concerns and appreciate the PM making this a free vote. It gives me the opportunity to express my personal view, outside collective responsibility.
“We should not treat legally competent adults differently in this way, where people born a day apart will have permanently different rights.
“Smoking rates are already declining significantly in the UK and I think there is more we can do to stop children taking up the habit. However, I do not support the approach this Bill is taking.”
Along with Mrs Badenoch, five other ministers voted against: Steve Baker, Alex Burghart, Andrew Griffith, Julia Lopez and Lee Rowley. While most of the 106 Tories who did not vote were abstentions, some may have been people who supported the Bill but were absent from the House on business.
A source close to Ms Mordaunt, the Leader of the House, said: “She didn’t feel able to support the Bill for many reasons. She sees it as unworkable.”
Speaking in the debate, Liz Truss, the former prime minister, who voted against the Bill, said it was “emblematic of a technocratic establishment in this country that wants to limit people’s freedom”. “My fear is this is not the final stage that the health police want to push,” she said. “People want to make their own decisions about what they eat and what they drink and how they enjoy
themselves.” She said she was “disappointed” that a Conservative government would bring forward such a “virtue-signalling piece of legislation”.
There were enough “finger-wagging, nannying control freaks” on the opposition benches willing to support the proposals, she said, urging Tories to instead “stand by our principles and our ideals”.
“I think the whole idea that we can protect adults from themselves is hugely problematic and it effectively infantilises people,” she said.
Mr Jenrick said online: “I believe in personal freedom. Let’s educate more and ban less. I also believe in the principle of equality under the law. A phased ban of smoking would be an affront to that.”
He added: “I respect those who disagree. The proponents have good intentions. I’ve seen the harmful effects of smoking in my own family, so I understand their perspective.
“But the best way to reduce smoking is to continue to educate, not a ban that will prove a nightmare to enforce.”
In the debate, former Tory minister Sir John Hayes said: “The idea of a rolling age of consent, for the consequence that someone of 35 will be able to buy tobacco, someone of 34 not, and so on and so forth, is at best a curiosity and at worst an absurdity.”
Sir Simon Clarke, a former levelling-up secretary, said the Bill was “fundamentally illiberal legislation” and would lead to “further rights creep”.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said that his party was “only too happy to defend the Health Secretary against the siren voices of big tobacco” gathered on the Tory benches.