FAG END
Smoking will be BANNED under Rishi Sunak plan to stop next generation buying fags
SMOKING will be banished in Britain after Rishi Sunak today announced plans to ban the next generation buying fags.
The PM is mounting an historic crackdown on cigarettes by raising the legal age every year until there are no smokers left.
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He said: "We must tackle the single biggest entirely preventable cause of ill health disability and death.
"And that is smoking, and our country. Smoking causes, one in four cancer deaths."
He said his plans would mean a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette.
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The tough new anti-smoking measures would see the smoking age increased by a year every year to eventually make it illegal for anyone to buy cigarettes.
Mr Sunak said the ban would be subject to a "free vote" in Parliament, meaning MPs will not be told how to vote by party enforcers.
The plan was originally rejected by ministers when suggested previously but has now been green-lighted.
Mr Sunak said: "People take up cigarettes when they are young. Four in five smokers have started by the time they are 20. Later, the vast majority try to quit.
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"But many fail because they are addicted and they wish had never taken up the habit in the first place.
"If we could break that cycle if we could stop the start then we would be on our way to ending the biggest cause of preventable death and disease in our country."
The Government is committed to making England “smokefree” by 2030, meaning fewer than 5 per cent of the public using cigarettes.
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of health charity ASH, said: “The Prime Minister has today announced an unprecedented set of measures to protect the next generation and hasten the day when smoking is obsolete.
"Children are four times as likely to start smoking if they grow up with smokers, and once they do it’s highly addictive and difficult to quit.”
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