Smoking ban could ‘pay for 390,000 extra GPS’
TORIES sceptical of Rishi Sunak’s planned smoking ban will this week be told it would save enough cash to employ hundreds of thousands more doctors and nurses.
Legislation going before MPS to stop anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes has been blasted by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as “absolutely nuts”.
But its proponents say that while smoking raises around £10billion a year in tax revenues, it costs a minimum of £17billion due to its health impacts.
The Department for Health and Social Care says this is enough to pay the annual salaries of half a million nurses and 390,000 GPS and fund 400 million GP appointments.
Health Secretaryvictoria Atkins said: “Smoking is
the biggest cause of ill health, disability and death and is entirely preventable.
“The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is about protecting the future of our children, supporting their health – and strengthening the wider economy.”
The Government argues that upping the minimum age for buying tobacco every year will be good for families, as the average smoker spends around £47 a week on tobacco – around £2,450 a year.
It claims the policy could deliver productivity gains of £20.5billion by 2056.
However, Mr Johnson is shocked the “party of Winston Churchill wants to ban cigars” while Reform UK MP Lee Anderson plans to vote against the legislation despite being an “ex-smoker and cancer survivor” because he believes in the “public’s right to choose”.
Chairman of the Common Sense group of Tory MPS Sir John Hayes has urged the Government to up the minimum age for smoking to 21, instead of raising the age annually, as a compromise.