British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed Thursday reports that his government is considering plans to ban smoking in outdoor spaces such as pub gardens in a nanny state-style intervention.
The new left-wing Labour Party government has drawn up plans to outlaw smoking of tobacco or vaping in outdoor areas such as pub gardens, outside nightclubs, shisha bars, restaurant terraces, in front of sports stadiums, at children’s parks, and outside of universities or hospitals, according to a report from The Sun newspaper.
On Thursday, the fledgling PM confirmed that the government is considering the plans, the BBC reports. Starmer said that such a move could be justified given the “preventable deaths” associated with smoking, which he said was bringing the National Health Service (NHS) to “its knees” and placing a heavy burden on the taxpayer.
However, critics have warned that the move will further economically imperil pubs in Britain, which already suffer under high taxes and stringent regulations.
Conservative Party leadership candidate and former Home Secretary, Priti Patel said: “Imposing nanny state regulation like this on pubs and restaurants would not only be wrong but economically damaging. These are small businesses, run by hardworking people, that provide jobs up and down the country.
“Labour is devoid of ideas and has no economic plan and is now reduced to nanny state policies to pacify their socialist base and take freedoms and choices away from the British people.”
‘It is going to lead to thousands more pubs closing.’
Hypnotherapist, Steve Miller and Editor at Spiked, Tom Slater debate Starmer’s decision to ban smoking in public spaces. pic.twitter.com/TqQtV3farc
— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 29, 2024
Yet, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned that the measure is likely to pass if put before Parliament given Labour’s large majority and the Conservative Party’s history of backing nanny state regulations on smoking, including former PM Rishi Sunak’s plans to ban smoking for anyone born after 2008, a policy that was adopted by the new Labour government.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Farage said: “I think it probably will happen, and I suspect most Conservatives will support it. There is so little difference between these two parties… So I suspect this will go through the commons, and I will probably never go to a pub again.”
“If you ban people smoking in gardens and ban people smoking outside the front of pubs, that is the end of the British pub. No more boozers. There’ll be restaurants that masquerade as pubs, but there would be no more pubs.”
“And by the way, it’ll be alcohol next,” the Clacton MP warned.
Finland Mulls Policy that Could Evict People Who Smoke in Their Own Apartmentshttps://t.co/e3trxWxOdh
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 10, 2023
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