The House of Commons of the United Kingdom approved this Tuesday the first reading of the law that will prohibit those born after 2009 from legally purchasing tobacco throughout their lives.
The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, considers this one of the most important projects of his mandate, easily approved thanks to the support of the majority of the parliamentary parties.
Specifically, 383 deputies have voted in favor compared to 67 who have voted against, the vast majority of those who have refused belong to Sunak’s Conservative Party.
Among the rebel Tories (those who voted against and had received freedom of voting from Sunak himself) were very prominent figures such as former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, or the Minister of Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch.
Victoria Atkins, the health minister, argued in a previous debate that “there is no freedom in addiction” and that those who defend freedom of choice should support the veto because the majority of smokers recognize that they are victims of their addiction and say that If they could go back they wouldn’t have started smoking.
Those who have opposed the measure, like Truss, have argued that it “restricts freedom of choice.” Labour, as well as the Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats, supported the speech in the previous debate by their Health spokesman, Wes Streeting.
The law was advanced by Sunak at the Conservative congress last October and has the objective that anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 will not be able to buy tobacco in their entire life. The project also aims to restrict the sale of vaping devices and related products for adolescents and young people, although it does not foresee their total ban.
