How Labour’s lifestyle socialism could change Britain

Did I miss anything while I was at TabExpo last week?

Not really, unless you count this. According to MailOnline:

Labour wants to completely ban smoking if it wins the next election, a frontbencher confirmed today.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said that following the example of New Zealand was 'desirable' and that there was a public 'appetite' to act.

Quizzed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Streeting said he was keen to adopt a plan that was workable if Labour won the next election.

It sounds dramatic but we’ve heard it before which is why, apart from the Mail, Streeting’s comments were largely ignored by other publications and broadcasters.

I suspect the lack of interest was partly due to the fact that former Conservative chancellor George Osborne, speaking to The Times’ Health Commission, said something very similar only a few weeks ago.

Nor was this the first time Streeting had expressed interest in New Zealand's tobacco control policy that will ban the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 2008.

Interviewed by The Times in January, Labour's shadow health secretary told the paper he was ready to take on the "libertarian right" over smoking:

New Zealand has introduced a law which means that nobody now under the age of 14 will ever be permitted to buy cigarettes, and [Streeting] is interested in doing something similar here.

Asked about it by Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One the following day, Streeting confirmed that Labour ‘would consult on banning the sale and purchase of cigarettes as part of a “radical” package of measures to stamp out smoking’.

On that occasion his comments were widely reported, as I wrote here, but I struggled to detect much enthusiasm or support from senior Labour colleagues.

So was he running solo? Hard to say, but apart from a bullish response to ITV’s Robert Peston - who asked him in March whether “Reducing smoking and vaping is a priority for you?”, to which Streeting replied, “100 per cent” - nothing more was heard from him on the subject until Friday.

Even the announcement, last month, of the Government's new tobacco control policies failed to generate a response from Labour’s shadow health secretary, which was odd because, at the very least, you might have expected a reaction to the Government's rejection of the New Zealand model which he had expressed so much interest in.

But no. I heard not a peep either from Streeting or any other member of the shadow cabinet that week. Even when he popped up on a succession of Sunday politics programmes a few days later, he said nothing about tobacco control (although he might say he wasn't asked).

Which brings us to his comments on the Today programme last week.

The first thing to be said is that, had it not been for MailOnline, they would probably have disappeared without trace because most of what little reaction there was was only in response to the Mail report.

(I searched for the relevant clip on the Today programme’s Twitter account but found nothing.)

There was however the bizarre sight of GB News' presenter Mark Dolan lighting and smoking a cigarette live on air in protest.

However, before we add Dolan, an "avowed non-smoker", to the guest list for future Forest events, I'm not sure that these words were especially helpful:

"I pledge to take up up this filthy habit, just to annoy them. Arrest me!"

More seriously, we'll keep a close eye on how this develops and I would suggest that, if you live in a Labour held constituency, you should write to your MP, making your views known.

I'm still not sure whether Streeting’s comments reflect official Labour policy or if he’s flying a kite to test public and media opinion, but the threat of a New Zealand style ban should be taken seriously, even if it isn’t included in the party’s election manifesto.

Readers will recall that the 2005 Labour manifesto committed the party to banning smoking in enclosed public places but with important exemptions for private members’ clubs and pubs that didn’t serve food.

And look what happened. Within 18 months of the election the Blair Government had reneged on that proposal and introduced a comprehensive ban despite public opinion being against a complete ban in pubs and clubs.

At least voters have been forewarned of Labour’s intentions should they win the next election, and it's important to note that possible interventions go much further than smoking.

As this MailOnline headline yesterday made clear:

Votes for EU citizens and children, legal right to WFH, bosses barred from emailing staff outside office hours, a total ban on smoking ... and a four-day week in the public sector: How Keir Starmer's New Labour 'on steroids' could change the face of Britain

The problem is that the Tories are so muddled, and have so little political identity at present, it’s hard to imagine enough people wanting to keep them in power for another term.

On the other hand, the alternative (a majority Labour government or a Labour-Lib Dem coalition) will almost certainly be even worse, policy wise, because that Mail headline may exaggerate the threat but it doesn’t lie.

Another scenario is that the Tories – not for the first time – decide to steal some of Labour's policies in the belief that it might reduce Labour's threat.

That would be a mistake, in my opinion. The only way the Conservatives have any chance of winning the election is by putting clear blue water between them and Labour. (Let's leave the Lib Dems out of this.)

One way they can do that is by giving voters a clear choice between the type of lifestyle socialism advocated by Labour (with the state increasingly micro-managing our lives), and a less regulated society that rejects further government intervention.

Unfortunately, such are the many challenges currently facing the country - from inflation and housing to education and immigration - I can’t see any party grasping the nettle and making the case for less intervention any time soon.

The Conservative Government’s current tobacco control policies, which focus on the promotion of vaping as a less harmful alternative to smoking, are (thankfully) relatively benign, but we can’t be certain that will remain the case.

ASH, for example, continues to bang the drum for a tobacco levy, and I'm sure raising the age of sale, introducing a tobacco licence, and reducing the number of shops that sell tobacco are still future goals.

So be warned. The combination of an ambitious health secretary and an interventionist Labour government could change the landscape very quickly indeed.