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In the first vote of the bill, 383 MPs voted in favour with 67 voting against. The bill will need to be adopted by the House of Lords to become law. Among those who opposed the bill were nearly 60 Conservative MPs, including business secretary Kemi Badenoch and other senior secretaries of state.
The bill aimed at phasing out smoking in Britain gradually advanced in parliament, as the House of Commons gave thumbs up to the controversial bill. The bill would ban the selling of tobacco products to anyone born after January 1, 2009. This will effectively raise the smoking age by a year each year until it applies to the whole population.
The parliament had debated Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s planned flagship legislation recently. It raked up opposition from many in his own Conservative Party. The bill is aimed at phasing out smoking almost completely as early as 2040.
In the first vote of the bill, 383 MPs voted in favour with 67 voting against. The bill will need to be adopted by the House of Lords to become law. Among those who opposed the bill were nearly 60 Conservative MPs, including business secretary Kemi Badenoch and other senior secretaries of state.
Conservative MPs were given a free vote. They were able to defy the government without fear of being suspended from the party. Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer. Opinion polls show that around two-thirds of people in the UK back a phased smoking ban.
Of late, there is a global move to curb the use of tobacco, which is injurious to the health of the people. Africa is also facing a heavy incidence of tobacco addiction particularly among the younger people. Also, some of the tobacco-growing tracts in Africa is experimenting with growing alternative crops.
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However, some MPs on the extreme right of the ruling Conservatives, including former prime minister Liz Truss, have branded the move an attack on personal freedoms. Former prime minister Boris Johnson also said at an event in Canada last week it was “mad” that the party of Winston Churchill was “banning cigars”. The proposed ban was supposedly inspired by a similar plan in New Zealand which was later dropped.
