Tobacco and Vapes Bill - amendments and exemptions

The report stage of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill takes place next Wednesday (March 26).

Amendments will be debated and voted upon in the House of Commons before the Bill moves to its third reading, at which point some of the MPs who didn't vote at second reading may come out of the closet and reveal their preferences.

You can read the current list of amendments here.

I assume that no reader of this blog will be directly affected by the generational tobacco sales ban, if and when it is introduced.

Nevertheless it should interest you that the DUP's Sammy Wilson has tabled an amendment that, if passed, would mean it wouldn't be an offence to sell 'tobacco products, herbal smoking products and cigarette papers to people born on or after 1 January 2009'.

Instead it would only be illegal to sell those products to a 'person under the age of 21'.

Another amendment, tabled by Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, 'exempts tobacco products other than cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco from the offence of selling tobacco products to a person born on or after 1 January 2009'.

In other words, an exemption for cigars, cigarillos, and heated tobacco.

A further amendment, tabled by Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan and supported by four of her colleagues, would restrict the Secretary of State 'to only being able to designate open or unenclosed spaces outside a hospital, children’s playground, nursery, school, college or higher education premises as smoke-free areas'.

Personally I object to smoking being banned in any open space, regardless of whether it's outside hospitals, schools or higher education premises, but if the amendment makes it harder for future Secretaries of State to extend smoking bans to more outdoor spaces then it may be a small price to pay.

The problem is that none of these amendments have been tabled by Labour MPs and without their backing I can't see any of them getting the votes they need.

Unfortunately any plans we may have had to make some noise while the Bill is being debated in the House could be dashed by another political event on the same day – the Chancellor's Spring statement.

What a coincidence!

All is not lost though because whatever happens next week the Tobacco and Vapes Bill still has to go to the House of Lords where it could be amended by peers, so there's plenty to play for, even if the odds are clearly against any dilution of the Bill as it currently stands.

Watch this space.

I once met …

Self-help guru Paul McKenna has been sharing with readers of The Sun an ‘exclusive 25-minute hypnosis’ video that helps people quit smoking.

'Self-help guru' and 'life coach' are not descriptions I normally warm to but I bumped into McKenna once, many years ago, and he was very nice.

We were at Western House (later renamed Wogan House) in London waiting to be interviewed on Radio 2.

We weren’t on together because I was there to talk about smoking and he was there to promote a new book about something else, but we had a short chat while we sat outside the studio.

In fact, he instigated the conversation which was quite unusual.

I’ve sat in many green rooms with many ‘celebrities’ and it’s rare that they initiate a conversation with someone they’ve never met, let alone show an interest in that person by asking questions about their job.

It’s so rare that only two people stand out - Tony Blackburn, who I spoke to when we were waiting to record a pilot for a Marcus Brigstocke talk show over 20 years ago, and Paul McKenna.

Knowing McKenna helped people stop smoking I expected a negative reaction when he asked me what I did, but he wasn’t judgemental or anti-smoking at all.

Like Tony Blackburn, he was extremely personable and I liked him immediately.

I had a slightly different experience when I met another quit smoking guru, the late Allan Carr, in a BBC studio in Manchester.

It was on January 4, 2004, and we were about to appear on The Heaven and Earth Show, a Sunday morning programme that ran from 1998 to 2007 on BBC1 and addressed spiritual and moral issues.

The date should give you a clue that we had been booked to talk about a possible workplace smoking ban, which the Labour government was considering, under pressure from the tobacco control industry.

To my surprise Carr was opposed to a smoking ban, but not for the same reasons as me. In his view it would lead to smokers ‘binge smoking’ when they left the office at lunch or after work.

However, while we were both opposed to a ban, it would be wrong to say we saw eye to eye on anything else and I found him quite intense. As I wrote later:

I enjoyed The Heaven and Earth Show. I got to meet quit smoking guru Allen Carr, a strange little man, quite different from the smooth-talking salesman I had imagined. Although he gave up his 100-a-day habit 20 years ago, he's still addicted to smoking, albeit in a rather different way. Even in the green room he and his wife (they now live in Malaga) found it difficult to talk about anything else.

To be honest, I was surprised he talked to me at all off air because I was led to believe he could be extremely hostile to anyone who had connections with the tobacco industry, which he seemed to blame for his own smoking habit all those years before.

He died from lung cancer, aged 72, two years later, but although there was no meeting of minds on the wider issue of smoking, we didn’t part on bad terms.

We simply didn't agree and I didn't want to get into an argument with him or his wife off air. (They were clearly devoted to one another, although she said very little.)

While I’m name dropping I might as well mention a third celebrity whose easy charm and interest in others impressed me enormously when I met her.

Emma Forbes was a presenter on Saturday morning children’s TV in the Nineties. The daughter of actress Nanette Newman and film producer Bryan Forbes, she was a regular contributor on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV when our paths crossed in 2009 and she could not have been nicer.

I’ve just Googled her name and it seems she moved to America a few years ago with her husband and children and they have no plans to return, at least not permanently.

Who can blame them?!

Change of Hart

I recently finished reading Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip by Simon Hart.

I enjoy contemporaneous political diaries, although I've often wondered how ministers in particular find time to keep such detailed journals of their lives when they must be so busy and exhausted at the end of each day.

My favourite political diary is probably Gyles Brandreth’s Breaking The Code: Westminster Diaries 1992-97, partly because I'm familiar with most of the people and events he wrote about. But it's also beautifully written.

Likewise the diaries of Alan Clark (1972-1999), a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments, and a serial seducer of (other) women.

I also enjoyed A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin (a Labour MP and former journalist), and there are several more I would add to that list.

The diaries of Henry ‘Chips’ Channon (1918-1938) are often cited as among the best of the genre, but I struggled with the first volume and eventually gave up.

Likewise the three-volume Diaries of a Cabinet Minister by Richard Crossman that cover the years 1964 to 1970 when the author was a minister in Harold Wilson's first Labour government.

Unless you're a historian, I do think it helps if you lived through the period in question and can therefore relate to the people and events the author writes about.

I was born in 1959 but wasn't politically aware until the 1970 election when Ted Heath upset the odds and defeated Wilson. Thereafter I took a keen interest.

Which brings me back to Ungovernable. Elected to Parliament in 2010, Simon Hart is the former chief executive of the Countryside Alliance who was appointed Chief Whip by Rishi Sunak, having been Secretary of State for Wales under Boris Johnson.

Ungovernable begins on election day, December 12, 2019, when the Conservatives won a landslide victory, thanks largely to Boris.

The author gives Boris credit for several things but eventually joined the pack of MPs who resigned from Johnson’s government in July 2022, forcing the PM out of office.

Having supported Sunak in the subsequent leadership race, he was overlooked by the winner, Liz Truss, before returning to government as Chief Whip under Sunak.

Wearing my Forest hat I was interested to know more about Sunak’s generational tobacco sales ban – how it came about, and what discussions took place behind the scenes – but the book reveals very little.

What it does confirm is that the idea for a generational ban in the UK came out of the blue because there is no mention of smoking or tobacco policy until September 1, 2023, a month before the Conservative Party conference in Manchester where Sunak would announce his vision for a smoke free Britain.

On September 12 Hart notes that ‘the latest three ideas, to scrap GCSEs, abandon HS2 north of Crewe and abolish smoking seem to be gathering pace’. Then, on September 28, he writes:

I get to see the early version of Rishi’s ‘big speech’. It’s a good, well-thought-out and intellectually compelling offering, but for some it will be seen to lack real political sex appeal. It deals with HS2, smoking and education thoughtfully. It’s hard to disagree, even if it is a speech that highlights three things we don’t like and fixes them rather than providing the ‘big vision’ some of our colleagues keep banging on about.

At party conference a few days later he reports that:

RS landed all three of his policy announcements with intelligence and clarity. Members were chuffed we had some real substance, and even the smoking ban landed okay, despite our fears it might provoke some audible groans from the libertarians.

There is no further mention of the generational ban, or smoking, until April 16, 2024, when Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill got its second reading in the House of Commons:

Today we vote on the PM’s smoking and vaping proposals. Our Party has become very pompous about ‘personal freedoms’ recently, so I recount in the whips meeting my dad’s attitude to seatbelts, which he resolutely refused to wear, as well as surprise our younger office colleagues by telling them that we always used to smoke in our offices, trains, planes and cinemas.

Pompous about ‘personal freedoms’? Read into that what you will, but I looked up Hart’s voting record on smoking and tobacco and I discovered that in 2012 he was one of 50 MPs, including 34 Conservatives, who wrote to health secretary Andrew Lansley expressing "serious concerns" about plain packaging.

According to the letter:

“There is no reliable evidence that plain packaging will have any public health benefit; no country in the world has yet to introduce it. However, such a measure could have extremely negative consequences elsewhere. The proposal will be a smuggler’s charter … This policy threatens more than 5,500 jobs directly employed by the UK tobacco sector, and over 65,000 valued jobs in the associated supply chain. … Given the continued difficult economic climate, businesses should not be subjected to further red tape and regulation”

Two years later Hart even voted against a ban on smoking in cars carrying children, telling his local paper:

“I will be voting against a ban. The reasons are quite simple really. Prohibition is rarely as effective as education. Of course smoking is bad for children – in cars, houses, or any other private place.

“Why do we not ban it altogether? Why do we not ban smoking whilst pregnant? Or for that matter any other activity that can potentially endanger minors? Because we try and strike a balance between protecting the public but stopping short of being bossy.

“There comes a time when we must resolve these issues by persuasion not the (often ineffective) tool of criminal sanction.”

Significantly, speaking in Parliament on April 3, 2014, he told health minister (and Conservative MP) Jane Ellison:

The Minister will be aware that it is already an offence to ... purchase tobacco under the age of 18. Would it be a good start to ensure that the current laws work before we start imposing new ones?

In other words, Simon Hart appeared to be ‘one of us’. What changed - other than being appointed Chief Whip by Rishi Sunak - to make him so dismissive of ‘personal freedoms’ whilst distancing himself from ‘libertarians’ in the party a decade later?

Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip by Simon Hart (Pan Macmillan)

The Reform egos have landed

Following the vicious squabbling at Reform UK, here’s a reminder of something I wrote in January 2022, five months before Boris Johnson was forced out of office by his Cabinet colleagues.

Commenting on the then PM’s precarious position, I wrote:

It’s a reminder of why I never got directly involved in politics. The problem, as I saw it, was that most politicians (and this goes back to my student days) spent far more time fighting their colleagues than challenging the ideas and philosophies of their political opponents.

Those on the same side of the political fence might agree on most issues but if one stood in the way of another they became sworn enemies and would do almost anything to bring their colleague down. Adult politics, it seems to me, is much the same and I have never wanted any direct part of it.

The Reform shenanigans also explain why I’m sceptical of grassroots membership organisations. As I commented here in response to a recent paper by Chris Snowdon:

Grassroots or membership organisations are not without their problems. For example, internal politics. This is not exclusive to such organisations but the odds on internal politics getting in the way is exacerbated because the smaller ones are often run by an elected committee whose members may have been voted in by a very small minority of members.

Such elections can throw up some freak results, including the election of ‘activist’ candidates - unrepresentative of the majority of members - whose primary aim is to disrupt the status quo.

Sometimes that can be a good thing. More often than not it’s like a cancer that threatens to destroy the organisation from within. Either way, it can be hugely disruptive and often very damaging to the organisation.

Democracy, then, has its flaws, but dictatorships rarely work well either. Even the most benign regimes rarely remain benign for long. Power corrupts, smouldering egos erupt, and the outcome is all too predictable.

Funnily enough, I’ve just discovered that I ‘muted’ Reform's Rupert Lowe on X several months ago. I’m not sure why (I have nothing against him personally) but I generally mute people if their opinions begin to make me feel uncomfortable, or if they post so often they start to dominate my timeline.

In Lowe's case it may have been a combination of the two, but I honestly can’t remember. Either way I’m not taking sides because I’m neither a member of Reform nor did I vote for the party in the general election.

As I said to a friend (who stood for Reform in the election), I couldn’t vote for the party because there were too many dodgy candidates and I didn’t like the aggressive, bullying behaviour of one member of the leadership group.

(It wasn’t Nigel Farage, to be clear, or Rupert Lowe, but it felt gauche and amateurish and as a result I am still struggling to take the party seriously.)

I said this to my friend long before the current brouhaha which is why I’m not surprised by what has happened. I am however a bit surprised it has happened quite so soon.

To be honest, I think this is probably a Westminster bubble story that will have relatively little impact on the current polls which put the party in second place behind Labour and just above the Conservatives.

In fact, I would think that regardless of recent events Reform has every chance of doing well in both the local elections and the forthcoming by-election that will follow the resignation of former Labour MP Mike Amesbury.

Beyond that however I can't help thinking that a party that can’t keep five MPs united and on the same page will struggle to build a stable platform for further growth, let alone form the next government.

In the (very) unlikely event that Reform was to win hundreds of seats, the spat between Farage and Lowe would be dwarfed by even bigger schisms.

See: Farage and Forest - a brief history

Wanted: a clear message on tobacco and vapes from the leader of the Opposition

It’s not just Guernsey that could raise the age of sale of tobacco from 18 to 21.

Ireland has already passed legislation to raise the minimum age of sale to 21 (from 2028), and this week it was reported that the Netherlands could consider the policy too.

Only the UK Government has plans to introduce a generational ban that will eventually outlaw the sale of tobacco to adults of all ages, but I suspect that 21 could become the norm in many other countries over the next decade, just as it is in the United States where introducing a minimum age of sale of 21 became a federal law in December 2019.

And here lies an opportunity for opponents of a generational ban in the UK because an amendment to raise the age of sale to 21 (replacing the gen ban) has been tabled by DUP MP Sammy Wilson and will be debated by MPs at the report stage and third reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill on Wednesday Msrch 26.

Although I'm still opposed in principle to raising the age of sale above 18, the age at we are legally recognised as adults, 21 would be better than a generational ban so in that sense I would welcome it, albeit through gritted teeth.

From the Government's point of view it surely makes sense to align the UK with some of our closest neighbours rather than risk a significant loss of revenue as a result of illicit trade or UK consumers choosing to buy their tobacco from legitimate retailers in more ‘liberal’ jurisdictions abroad.

Meanwhile we await the Conservative Party’s position on the generational ban and other measures in the Bill, including further restrictions on vapes.

I know Kemi Badenoch voted against the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, but watching the committee stage it was impossible to deduce what the Conservatives’ official position is because two of her MPs – Dr Caroline Johnson and newbie Jack Rankin – were often in open conflict.

As shadow health minister Dr Johnson was the senior of the two, and if you listened to her you could be forgiven for thinking the Tories want to go even further than Labour.

As far as I know, Conservative MPs will once again be given a free vote when the Bill returns to the Commons for the report stage and third reading, and I can see why that would appeal to the leadership who don't want to split a much reduced parliamentary party by forcing MPs to vote in a way that might provoke open rebellion from the likes of Bob Blackman, chair of both the APPG on Smoking and Health and the influential 1922 Committee.

But this is an early opportunity for Badenoch to put clear blue water between the party she leads and Labour. Unfortunately far too many Tory MPs pay lip service to freedom of choice and personal responsibility and when it comes to voting they are just as wedded to the nanny state as every other party, bar Reform.

That is not, btw, an endorsement of Reform whose descent into bitter infighting was entirely predictable. I have mentioned, several times, why I never wanted to go into party politics, and this is why – people spend far too much time fighting their own colleagues instead of the opposition.

Anyway, I'm strictly Team Kemi but I would like to see a clear statement from the leader of the Opposition concerning the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, and I will be disappointed if that opportunity goes begging because principles matter in politics and this is a chance to nail her more liberal colours firmly to the mast.

Voters want authenticity and leadership from politicians and that means sticking to your principles and beliefs. Yes, politicians have to be pragmatic too (Margaret Thatcher was more pragmatic and less of an ideologue than she is often given credit for), but a clear statement from the leader of the Opposition opposing the generational tobacco ban would be a welcome step forward for a Conservative Party that appears to have abandoned many of its core values.

The unintended hypocrisy of some public health practitioners

I would never criticise someone for their weight or appearance.

One, it’s rude, potentially hurtful, and none of my business.

Two, as someone who is significantly overweight myself, it would be hypocritical to say the least.

It does astound me though when people who are hardly a picture of health themselves choose to advise or pass comment on other people’s habits.

Yesterday, for example, there was a story on the BBC News website in which Cornwall Council’s Marc Neeld said quitting smoking was "the best thing" a person could do for their health.

Neeld was described as a ‘health practitioner’ but does he practise what he preaches?

Click on the link and let me know, but don’t be rude or unkind!

Channel Island hopping

I was interviewed on BBC Radio Guernsey yesterday.

Like the UK, the island’s government is considering further restrictions on smoking and the sale of tobacco.

According to reports, the public supports extending the smoking ban to a number of outdoor spaces. There is also support for raising the age of sale from 18 to 21.

Whenever I appear on Radio Guernsey, or Channel Island News (BBC1), I am reminded of my one and only visit to the island 20 years ago.

I went at the invitation of a local hotelier who was campaigning against the proposed indoor smoking ban. He had organised a public meeting and wanted me to speak, which I did.

Unfortunately his campaign (Support Our Smokers) couldn’t prevent the ban which was introduced in 2005 when Guernsey became the first place in the British Isles to prohibit smoking in indoor public places.

Jersey followed on January 2, 2007, but unlike Guernsey I’ve never been there.

I wouldn’t say it’s on my bucket list but it’s the only significant part of the British Isles I’ve never visited so I ought to make the effort.

Funnily enough, I am currently watching the new series of Bergerac on U. At the same time I am dipping in to the ‘classic’ series that starred John ‘Midsomer Murders’ Nettles in the Eighties.

Aside from the rather grainy picture, I am enjoying the original more than the reimagined version of the Jersey detective.

In the original he was a recovering alcoholic and divorced but had a string of glamorous girlfriends. In the new version he is a recovering alcoholic but recently widowed with a daughter and intrusive mother-in-law, and the programme spends far too much time addressing his personal struggle, which is boring, frankly.

Apparently, the authorities in Jersey hope to enjoy a tourist bounce on the back of it, but the charm, humour and fun of the original series are noticeably lacking, so I’m not sure who would want to jump on a plane (or ferry) and follow in the ‘new’ man’s footsteps.

I’m not saying it’s bad but it doesn’t stand out in a crowded field of TV coppers, and it doesn’t help that a significant character in the new series is played by an actor who appears as a not dissimilar character in the current series of The Bay (yet another police series) on ITV.

Confused? I was.

From the archive: Forest’s No Smoking Day breakfast at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand

On No Smoking Day 25 years ago we organised a smoker-friendly fry-up at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand in London.

Those were the days when you could still eat and smoke in some of Britain’s finest restaurants so we invited 16 or 17 people to join us for a champagne breakfast that included Cumberland sausage, honeydew bacon, black pudding, devilled kidneys, fried bread, fried eggs, hash browns, grilled tomato, grilled mushrooms, baked beans … and cigars.

Guests included Lord Harris of High Cross (chairman of Forest for 20 years until his death in 2006), Tom Assheton (MD, Tomtom Cigars), and Claire Fox (director of the Academy of Ideas and now Baroness Fox of Buckley).

Claire is on the right, above, with Lord Harris directly behind her. Tom is at the back, in the centre.

At the time Forest employed four full-time staff. I’m on the left, Juliette Torres is at the front (centre), Martin Ball is next to her, and behind them is office manager Jenny Sharkey who went on to work for Theresa May for the next 20+ years.

Russell Lewis, the distinguished looking gentleman in the centre of the picture (behind Juliette), was a non-executive director of Forest for 30 years until his death at the age of 96 in 2022.

Other guests that day included journalists Lauren Booth (half sister of Cherie Blair) and the Evening Standard’s Pete Clark.

Pete (who died last year) wrote a very funny piece about the event for the Standard, and I think Lauren may have mentioned it in the New Statesman, for which she was writing a column at the time. (She's pictured below, with Pete on the far right.)

Another guest in the photo below was writer and cigar aficionado James Leavey, author of The Forest Guide to Smoking in London (1997). James (with the beard) died in 2023.

Also present was Clive Turner, former director of public affairs at the Tobacco Advisory Council (later renamed the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association). As I explained here, I first met Clive in 1989 when I was a freelance journalist, and we kept in touch long after he retired.

He wrote an article about our No Smoking Day breakfast for the Forest magazine Free Choice, noting that:

Forest chairman Lord Harris of High Cross urged people to put two fingers up to intolerance and, as your correspondent discovered, the party was both hugely enjoyable and a small blow against the unremitting necessity the state seems to have to monitor and regulate individual enjoyment and pleasure.

Simpson’s closed during the pandemic and has yet to reopen. According to one report, however, it was due to re-open in May 2025.

I don’t know if that is still the case but I’ll keep you posted because it’s an iconic establishment and it would be great to have it back.