Rishi Sunak’s much-vaunted anti-smoking legislation has been unceremoniously binned thanks to the sudden snap election. Just yesterday Sunak stood before the nation, promising that the Tories would “ensure that the next generation grows up smoke-free.”  The legislation hasn’t gone far enough in its journey through Parliament to make it through by tomorrow evening, though it’s likely it’ll remain in the Tory manifesto. Sunak’s first promise of the campaign goes up in smoke…

The government has now published the members the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee – they’ll be considering amendments to the bill in May. Guido is surprised to see that, despite 165 Tory MPs either abstaining or voting against the smoking ban, the 16-member Committee contains exactly zero MPs who who voted against it. The whips don’t want any more trouble from pesky fans of free choice…

16 of the 17 committee members voted for the bill and the one who didn’t, Labour MP Mary Kelly Foy, is vice-chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health which has been pushing the ban constantly. Almost a quarter of the committee members are from the APPG, which is run by the anti-smoking lobby group ASH. Sorry news for MPs who hoped amendments might be considered fairly…

Simon Clark, director of smokers’ rights group Forest tells Guido: “Committees don’t need to be balanced but this is such an obvious stitch-up it’s embarrassing. The make-up of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee is effectively a f*ck you to every MP who voted against the Bill, and every member of the public who opposes the generational smoking ban.” It wouldn’t be the first time the government has deployed smoke and mirrors for this bill…

MPs are currently debating the second reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which will ban smoking for everyone born after 2009, forever. Tory MP Jake Berry has delivered an impassioned attack on the policy on the grounds of freedom. He is channeling his inner John Locke:

“The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting according to his own will, is grounded on his having reason, which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him know how far he is left to the freedom of his own will.”

Berry also points out the policy wasn’t in the manifesto. There is no mandate for it. No one, apart from sneering control freak lobbyists, asked for it. He says: “I want to live in a free society where I am free to make both good and bad decisions“. The Tories’ lonely attempt to institute inequality under the law by splitting society into those with freedom and those without it is a far cry from anything that might resemble conservatism…

Sunak is under fire for dirty tactics in pushing through his smoking ban – now delayed by over a month. Guido hears between 80 and 100 Tory MPs are strongly opposed to the bill, which is currently getting repeatedly ironed through the Department of Health. The government is desperate to avoid the bill going through with Labour votes…

The government’s consultation on the “Smokefree Generation” has broken guidance by going for too short an amount of time and being for a pre-determined policy. The government is also breaking standard practice by refusing to publish the names of the 896 organisations that responded to the tobacco ban consultation – likely because they are mostly linked to the huge public health industry. It also goes so far as to say “we have not considered” the views of any respondent with any possible vested interest in tobacco, like independent retailers. Rendering the consultation completely useless…

Tory MPs’ questions asking for clarity are being shunned. Simon Clark, director of smokers’ rights group Forest tells Guido “the public needs to know the extent to which the Government has manipulated both the consultation and the debate about a generational smoking ban.” There’s no smoke without fire…

New polling from Yonder Consulting on Sunak’s generational smoking ban shows that the public is firmly behind Liz Truss in thinking that adults “must be able to make their own choices about their own lives“. 64% of adults say that when people reach 18 years of age they should be allowed to buy cigarettes and whatever other tobacco products they please. Only a quarter say they shouldn’t. Smokers’ rights group Forest commissioned the poll and is rightly warning we can’t have “a two-tier society” where some adults can and some can’t buy their fags. We already know the ban will cost the taxpayer £9 billion per year…

Liz Truss tells Guido in reaction to the poll: “This is what I am hearing from people I speak to in my South West Norfolk constituency. People want under-18s to be protected. They don’t want adults’ freedoms to be restricted. I fear this is a slippery slope“. Sunak’s useless and unpopular personal crusades are just ceding more ground to do-gooder control freaks…

Guido’s view on Rishi’s various smoking bans has been clear. Prohibition generally doesn’t work in practice…

Now, on top of his New Zealand-style smoking ban and crack down on vapes marketing and flavours, Rishi will be announcing further bans today: disposable vapes. In order to “protect children’s health“, our teetotal Prime Minister has decided that banning all disposable vapes, for adults as well, is a good legacy to leave behind. Another victory for the nanny-state…

Though the bans are likely to go through, friends of the free-market are not happy; we know how the free-market wonks felt about the ban when the plans started to gather steam. Disposable vapes are an inexpensive way for adult smokers to wean off cigarettes, as the Institute of Economic Affairs noted, the ban is a “pro-smoking policy“. According to WeVapeUK director Mark Oates, “This will lead 600,000 premature deaths due to the increase in smoking rates.” Noxious…

As well as restricting freedom, the bans are likely to to hit hard taxpayers’ wallet too, with the smoking ban alone expected to cost the government £9 billion a year. Those on the right of the party have also blasted the bans, with Liz Truss saying: “While the state has a duty to protect children from harm, in a free society, adults must be able to make their own choices about their own lives“. What have they been smoking…