Popping into the pub beer garden for a quick smoke may become a thing of the past if reported government plans go ahead.
Labour is looking to extend the indoor smoking ban brought in under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to cover a wider range of outdoor areas, according to the Sun.
Alongside pub gardens, they include restaurant and cafe terraces, children’s parks, and shisha bars.
Smokers would also be barred from lighting up outside nightclubs, sports stadiums and universities.
However, it would still be allowed in open spaces like parks and streets and there would be no restriction on smoking in private homes.
The newspaper quoted leaked proposals that would form part of an updated Tobacco and Vapes Bill – the same legislation that would stop people born after January 1 2009 from ever legally buying cigarettes.
Keir Starmer committed to moving ahead with the bill, which would also bring in stringent restrictions for vapes to stop them appealing to kids, in the King’s Speech last month.
The extra restrictions are reportedly being considered as ministers are concerned about how often Brits are exposed to second-hand smoke.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘We do not comment on leaks. Smoking claims 80,000 lives a year, puts huge pressure on our NHS, and costs taxpayers billions.
‘We are determined to protect children and non-smokers from the harms of second-hand smoking.
‘We’re considering a range of measures to finally make Britain smoke-free.’
However, opposition MPs have blasted the idea as damaging to individual freedom and hospitality businesses that are already struggling.
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Tory leadership candidate and former Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘Imposing nanny state regulation like this on pubs and restaurants would not only be wrong but economically damaging.
‘These are small businesses, run by hardworking people, that provide jobs up and down the country.
‘Labour is devoid of ideas and has no economic plan and is now reduced to nanny state policies to pacify their socialist base and take freedoms and choices away from the British people.’
Robert Jenrick, who is also running to become leader of the Conservatives, said: ‘The last thing this country needs is thousands more pubs closing.
‘Our country faces huge challenges. Why is Starmer focusing on this nonsense?’
Reform MP Rupert Lowe wrote on X: ‘A ban on smoking in pub gardens? More intrusion into people’s lives. It happens slowly, and then accelerates with freedom evaporating.
‘If people want to smoke in a pub garden, let them. There is much, much more of this to come… STOP treating us like children.’
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Director of Policy at the NHS Confederation Dr Layla McCay said she was ‘obviously in favour of measures that help abolish smoking’ due to her work in health.
She added: ‘We are heartened to see that progress is being made and that the intention is moving forward to really address one of Britain’s main drivers of health inequalities.’
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