Fresh off the back of his big conference speech yesterday, Rishi Sunak is keen to get on the front foot in defending his policy blitz. Speaking to Nick Robinson on the Today Programme, the PM insisted his radical, New Zealand-style smoking ban is the right call, and will be the “single biggest intervention in public health in a generation”. In other words, the biggest lurch towards the nanny state he could imagine:

 “Smoking is unequivocally the single biggest preventable cause of death, disability and illness in our society… there is no safe level of smoking… Everyone recognises this measure will be the single biggest intervention in public health in a generation.”

Labour are already making supportive noises, so this ban is almost inevitable whoever wins next year. A ban that will be the greatest triumph for nanny staters…