The UK Prime Minister claims the fact he’s never had a cigarette has nothing to do with his proposed crackdown on smoking.
At the Conservative Party Conference this week, Rishi Sunak announced prospective plans by his government to introduce new legislation effectively criminalising anyone turning 14 this year ever buying tobacco products in future.
Health campaigners have welcomed the move, while critics have argued it undermines personal rights to the extent of contravening the Prime Minister’s own principles as a self-professed Thatcherite.
Sunak, who also does not drink and has in the past said he dislikes even the taste of non-alcoholic beer, revealed he has never smoked a cigarette during an interview with LBC on Friday.
Responding to presenters’ questions, he said: ‘No, and it has absolutely no relevance to anything.
‘The issue here is about protecting our kids.
‘And the point I was making is, we’ve got an opportunity to do something that will stop our kids growing up smoking.’
He went on: ‘Smoking is the single biggest cause we have of death, disability and illness in the UK. It causes one in four cancers. 64,000 people die every year.’
The Prime Minister says the proposal will be subject to a ‘free vote’ in parliament, making it a ‘matter of conscience’ for representatives to decide upon.
Labour has responded by saying it ‘will not play politics with public health’, adding that it would ‘lend’ support of the proposals.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson, who left office last year amid a whirl of scandals partly centred on allegations he’d held booze-fuelled parties at Downing Street in contravention of his government’s own restrictions during the pandemic, hit out at Sunak’s proposed measures as a form of ‘smoking apartheid.’
Writing for the Daily Mail, Johnson said: ‘Child A will be free to smoke like a chimney to the end of his days. Child B – born only a day later! – will be a criminal if he does.
‘How the hell is that supposed to work?’
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