Labour has come out in support of Lord Young’s amendment to the Levelling Up Bill which would ban smoking outside of pubs and restaurants. This is part of a coordinated campaign with over a dozen London councils and anti-smoking peers. The same move was attempted in 2021. Not only will Labour enact a New Zealand-style smoking ban, the party also supported Amendment 258 in the Lords last night, whose purpose “is to ensure that all pavement licences are smoke free”. Distraught Westminster wonks are talking about smoking inside pubs again in protest…

Local authorities can already enact such measures. So far only 10 have decided to do so, including Manchester City Council. That tells you all you need to know…

Baroness Taylor of Stevenage is the shadow Lords spokesman for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Transport. Last night she told the House:

“Amendment 258 would ensure that smoking and vaping does not impact on others. At the moment, pavement cafés are often marred for non-smokers, who find them difficult to use because smokers tend to see them as their own territory …

Going into a pub garden, for example, on a warm summer evening is often a great feature of our life in this country — that is, when it is not marred by rain. But it can also be marred by clouds of cigarette smoke or vape smoke, so we have to think differently about that.

There is also the issue of the cigarette ends that smokers leave. I have never understood why smokers do not think of cigarette ends as litter. The area outside a pub is often absolutely covered in cigarette ends. So there is the question of having smoke-free areas where there are cafés, pubs and restaurants.” 

Simon Clark, director of smoker-rights group Forest, said the proposal was “insane. There is absolutely no justification for the government to ban smoking outside pubs and restaurants because there is no evidence that smoking in the open air poses a significant risk to non-smokers.” Boris isn’t here to block it this time. The bureaucrats are aiming for a “Fun Free Britain” by 2030…