‘I started smoking at 12 — my fellow Tories are wrong to oppose new ban’

GOVERNMENT minister Laura Farris described her regret at having started smoking aged 12 as she blasted Conservative libertarians such as Liz Truss who plan today to vote against legislation aimed at creating a “smoke-free generation”.

The victims and safeguarding minister, 45, right, said she was glad that her two young children would never be able to buy tobacco legally under the legislation, which will be put to a free vote at its first hurdle in the Commons today. Tory critics including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Ms Truss have slammed Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which would outlaw the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2009. Ms Truss is among Conservative MPs who plan to use the free vote to register their opposition, and the scale of their vote will reveal resistance to Mr Sunak more widely amid calls from some on the Tory Right for another change of leader to rescue the party’s standing ahead of an election this year.

Labour backs the smoking ban, however, ensuring it is likely to go through eventually. Ms Farris underlined that smoking is still responsible for one in four of all deaths and costs the NHS £17 billion a year. She said that she was “ashamed” to admit that she started smoking at the age of 12, and then struggled to quit throughout her twenties.

“It’s one of my biggest regrets actually,” she told LBC, adding: “I have never met a single smoker who’s glad they did it, wishes that their children do it, can identify a single health benefit or any other life benefit. And actually, I think this is a very, very sensible policy.”

Ms Truss, who is promoting a new book about her disastrous and shortlived time in 10 Downing Street, insisted there was no popular support for the legislation despite polls showing a clear public majority in favour of the ban.

The Bill would also regulate the display, contents, flavours and packaging of vapes to discourage their appeal to children. Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said that it would be an “enormous public health achievement” if smoking eventually dies out, adding: “It is utterly unacceptable to market vaping to children.”