Why Labour’s outdoor smoking ban plan was no surprise

I’m not sure why anyone should be surprised by Labour’s aggressive lurch towards further nanny state measures.

Just because the party didn’t include outdoor smoking bans or restrictions on fast food advertising in their election manifesto doesn’t mean the intention wasn’t there. They just chose not to mention it.

The only thing that has surprised me is the speed with which Keir Starmer’s Government is pushing ahead with policies that few people - including many Labour MPs - consider a priority.

Haven’t they got better things to do?

For the best part of a decade polls commissioned by Forest have consistently found that, when asked to prioritise ten topical issues, the public has always put tackling smoking, tackling obesity, and tackling misuse of alcohol at the bottom of the list.

Of all the questions we’ve ever asked, this is the one that produces the most consistent response. Despite this, Labour remains wedded to intrusive policies on lifestyle issues, and the evidence has been there for years.

Take the plan to ban smoking outside pubs and in other outdoor areas. This is nothing new. In November 2018 Welsh Labour leadership candidate Mark Drakeford proposed a ban on smoking outside pubs and in town centres in his manifesto.

Duly elected, Drakeford became first minister in Wales and in June 2020 health minister Vaughan Gething declared, in a written statement:

I remain committed to making more of Wales’ public spaces smoke free and intend to progress work in the next Senedd term to extend the smoking ban to outdoor areas of cafes and restaurants and city and town centres.

Although the threat gradually receded, that was arguably due to the distractions caused by Covid, not a change of heart by Drakeford or Gething, who succeeded Drakeford as first minister in March this year but was forced to resign a few months later.

You may also remember what happened in England shortly after the first Covid lockdown. In July 2020 the Conservative Government under Boris Johnson sought to help businesses get back on their feet as quickly as possible, so they introduced an emergency Business and Planning Bill that was designed to reduce red tape.

When the Bill got to the House of Lords amendments were tabled, initially by Labour and then by Liberal Democrat peer Lindsay Northover, that would have banned smoking in all new licensed pavement areas outside cafes, pubs, and restaurants.

Although Labour subsequently withdrew their amendment, the Johnson Government was forced to compromise by giving the power to impose a de facto ban on smoking in new licensed pavement areas to local authorities, thereby avoiding a national ban.

In practice it’s worked reasonably well because only a handful of councils have imposed a complete ban, preferring to leave the decision to individual licensees who have a choice. Significantly, though, they include two of the largest Labour-run authorities - Manchester and Newcastle.

That said, we knew the threat hadn’t gone away and last year The Sun reported that ‘Smokers face BAN outside pubs and restaurants under major rule change demanded by officials’.

I wrote about it here, noting that:

In 2020 the [Labour] party grudgingly supported the Government's position [not to ban smoking outside pubs], but that has clearly changed and it's hardly a surprise. Labour, after all, is the party that introduced the indoor smoking ban in Scotland, England, and Wales.

Last night, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, shadow Lords spokesperson for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Transport, 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.”

So there you have it. Labour supports not only a ban on smoking in licensed pavement areas but, judging from Baroness Taylor's remarks, an outdoor ban might also be extended to beer gardens and include vaping.

At the time no-one else seemed to notice Baroness Taylor’s comments but it was clear that if Labour was returned to government smoking outside pubs would come under serious threat.

Anyway, there was an interesting development last week because, aside from further reports of discord among publicans around the country, it was reported that some Labour MPs are opposed to the Government’s plan to ban smoking outside pubs.

Opposition is being led by Mary Glindon, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, who has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) warning that it "will unduly restrict individual liberty where second-hand smoking dangers are negligible".

This followed an article in her local newspaper in which she wrote:

The curb on indoor smoking was seen as legitimate and was easier to enforce but a ban on outdoor smoking would be harder to enforce and not a priority for hard-pressed police officers.

Besides, people have the right to smoke provided they harm no one else. And that can be done outside.

Additionally, driving smokers away from pubs and nightclubs will drive some of them out of business.

Have a thought for those who see smoking as a crutch in a difficult life. Remember older people, particularly single men, who nurse a pint and a tab outdoors and feel less isolated and even looked out for.

It will be interesting to see how many Labour MPs sign her EDM because the key to reversing Kier Starmer’s plan is probably in their hands.

Meanwhile, what of the Tories?

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel and Esther McVey were quick to criticise Labour’s plan, but since then the only comment I’ve seen by a Conservative MP on the subject came from Bob Blackman.

A close associate of ASH (he was chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health in the last Parliament), Blackman last week claimed that ‘failing to include shisha lounges and chewing tobacco, such as paan, in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill would leave “escape clauses”’.

In other words, the man who was recently elected chair of the influential 1922 Committee wants to extend the outdoor smoking ban to shisha cafes as well. (See Tory MP calls for crackdown on shisha lounges.)

To the best of my knowledge, not one of the four remaining candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party has said a single word on the subject.

We know that Kemi Badenoch is opposed to a generational ban on the sale of tobacco because she was the only Cabinet minister to vote against it at the second reading of the previous government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

We know too that Robert Jenrick opposed a ban on smoking in licensed pavement areas because as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government he ‘urged [Manchester] council not to burden businesses with more red tape and to follow the legislation which caters for smoking and non-smoking customers’.

Nevertheless, neither he nor Badenoch appear to have said anything publicly on the subject of a nationwide ban on smoking outside pubs, which is disappointing.

Perhaps they think it might lose them votes in a tight leadership contest, but if that’s the case what does it say about the modern Conservative Party?

On the other hand, I do see some wisdom in allowing this to play out within Labour ranks because nothing the Tories say or do is going to make the slightest difference.

If the plan is dropped it will probably happen only because of pressure within the Labour Party. Whether there’s sufficient opposition to derail the plan remains to be seen.

See also: Keir Starmer faces rebellion from his OWN MPs over outdoor smoking ban in pub gardens and near footy stadiums (The Sun)

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

It was obvious that Labour would put the nanny state on steroids. The only reason they won the election was because people lost faith in a Tory party trying too hard to be like them. Tories would have done it too but it might have been more at the end of the five year term rather than the beginning.

One can only hope that a party emerges that is prepared to say enough is enough, we are not slaves to the ideological whims of government or the obsessions of over paid activists who have infiltrated government.

I am not sure who will win the next election but I am sure it will not be Labour. The party has attacked everyone it depends on for votes. The old hate it because Labour stole their heating allowance, and pensions, the young hate them because they're stealing their vapes and treats, the rich hate them because they want all their money in tax, and the poor hate them because they want to control how they spend what little money they have.

Something has to give in future. Life cannot go on like this. People must be free from having to live in fear of living.

[Cambridge (U.S.) Citizens for Smokers' Rights]

One must ask why such an enormous number of activists, medical and health groups, private foundations, and government entities like the WHO are prosecuting such a global war on smokers and the businesses that depend on them. Does smoking symbolize something? Are smokers somehow different than other people? We're sure there is a conscious or unconscious motive, but whatever it is, it is not simple, easily explained, or understood.