(April 16, 2024 at 4:33 am)pocaracas Wrote:Quote:MPs to vote on Rishi Sunak's smoking ban billhttps://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68816566
Anyone turning 15 from this year would be banned from ever buying cigarettes under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which also makes vapes less appealing to children.
A number of Tory MPs have told the BBC they won't back the bill.
Conservative MPs will get a free vote on it so they won't be ordered to vote with the government, but the bill is likely to pass as it has Labour and Lib Dem support.
The bill would make the sale of tobacco products, rather than the act of smoking, illegal.
Tobacco use is the UK's single biggest preventable cause of death, killing two-thirds of long-term users and causing 80,000 deaths every year.
On top of that, a patient is admitted to hospital with a smoking-related condition, such as heart disease, strokes and lung cancer, almost every minute in England.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins said the bill would save thousands of lives and "ease the strain" on the NHS.
She said: "Too many people know someone whose life has been tragically cut short or irreversibly changed because of smoking, which despite significant progress remains the UK's biggest preventable killer.
We had the exact same law in place here, set to take effect this July. Then the right-wingers got back in and repealed it. I hope the UK has better luck.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
