All Those born after 2009 will not be able to buy tobacco for life legally in United Kingdom. The The House of Commons gave the green light this Tuesday to a bill with which the United Kingdom makes history in the fight against smoking.
Measure that aims to forge “a smoke-free generation”came out ahead with a large majority: 387 votes in favor and 67 against, the vast majority of them members of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's own Conservative Party.
The project, considered one of the most important of Sunak's mandate, was approved with the support of the majority of the parliamentary parties and despite the opposition from prominent members of his party like former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss or the Minister of Business, Kemi Badenoch.
[Cuevas (Philip Morris): “Debe existir una regulación para cualquier producto con nicotina”]
In practice, it is a 'delayed' ban, since it will not affect those who have reached the age of majority until 2026, but it will be complete and permanent for those who are still minors then and for all generations yet to be born.
The Minister of Health, Victoria Atkinsargued in the previous debate of the project that “there is no freedom in addiction” and that those who defend free choice should support the veto, since smokers are victims of their addiction and they almost always admit that they would not have started smoking if they could go back.
Among the Tories who opposed the measure, like Truss, they argued that it “restricts the freedom” of individuals to decide about themselves.
Meanwhile, Labor overwhelmingly supported the text, which its Health spokesman, Wes Streeting, defended in the previous debate, as well as the Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats.
The law was advanced by Sunak at the conservative congress last October and has the objective that anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 will not be able to buy tobacco in their entire life.
The project also regulates the sale of vapesprohibiting them for those under 18 years of age and allowing the Government to regulate the flavors, types of packaging and sales signs, to discourage these types of products from ending up replacing cigarettes.
This law still has several procedures, more votes and a passage through the House of Lords, but given the overwhelming support received this Tuesday, the text has a good chance of becoming law before the summer.
