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Rishi Sunak is considering introducing some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking measures that would in effect ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, the Guardian has learned.
Whitehall sources said the prime minister was looking at measures similar to those brought in by New Zealand last December. They involved steadily increasing the legal smoking age so tobacco would end up never being sold to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Labour has previously said it was consulting on phasing out cigarette sales over time for younger people in a similar way to New Zealand, with the shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, saying in January he wanted to find out whether there was an “appetite for change” in the country.
In relation to Sunak’s net zero rowback and confusion over his education policies, Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said the government was creating instability in the country that was exacerbating an “economic bin-fire” under the Tories.
“At a time when people and businesses are crying out for stability, Rishi Sunak has poured fuel on the Tories’ economic bin-fire in a desperate bid to keep Liz Truss and her fellow arsonists happy,” he told the Guardian.
Sunak is also under pressure over the HS2 high-speed rail line, with talks being held over whether to cut the Birmingham to Manchester arm of the project in a move that would infuriate northern Tories and further risk seats won under Boris Johnson in 2019.
However, the shift in the net zero agenda, drawn up under the guidance of the electoral strategist Isaac Levido, as well as the search for dividing lines in the areas of welfare and crime, suggest the policy changes are also highly political.
Asked about the policy of a New Zealand style-smoking ban, a government spokesperson said: “Smoking is a deadly habit – it kills tens of thousands of people each year and places a huge burden on the NHS and the economy.
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