Tobacco and Vapes Bill

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing to the Chamber his professional experience and the real-life ...

How does the Secretary of State counter the Conservative argument that if we ban something, we ma...

I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend. I will genuinely come to that, because I know th...

The Secretary of State is right that we should protect the next generation. Labour proposed the s...

That is a brave submission from the hon. Lady, given the debate in the Chamber yesterday. I certa...

I commend my right hon. Friend for her approach to young people smoking, her determination to dea...

I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend and close Lincolnshire neighbour. He knows that o...

rose—

rose—

I will just finish this point. We are bringing forward this legislation so that we stop the start...

Let me say from the outset that I completely support this Bill. In Newham, 22% of sales last year...

Yes, I can assure the hon. Lady, because the illicit trade is often the greatest in the most depr...

Has my right hon. Friend seen the latest statistics that say twice as many schoolchildren smoke c...

To be clear, is my right hon. Friend suggesting that we repeal the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, unde...

First of all, I commend the Secretary of State and the Government for bringing forward this legis...

I am extremely grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s support. We understand the level of lobbying tha...

rose—

I am going to make a little progress, if I may, because I want to come to the age of sale.

...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that, largely, the Bill will not affect people in this House but ...

I thank my right hon. Friend. Yet again, she reminds us what a brilliant local constituency MP sh...

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way. She knows that I take a particular interest in the...

The hon. Gentleman raises a very fair point. Interestingly, the latest survey of retailers shows—...

I smoked until 30usb years ago and it was a very hard business to stop the evil weed. I come from...

First of all, I completely reject my hon. Friend’s suggestion that he is a dinosaur. He brings a ...

I am listening very carefully to what my right hon. Friend is saying. She outlined how the consum...

Sadly—I say this genuinely—there is nothing inevitable about a decrease in smoking rates. Indeed,...

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. She is making a very important point about young peo...

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing the City of Westminster right into the Chamber. There are, in...

rose—

rose—

I am going to make some progress and then I will give way.

As I have said, the tobacco indu...

Of course, the tax burden is the highest it has been for some considerable time. I welcome the Bi...

No, because, as I have said, the modelling suggests that among the younger generation smoking lev...

I am somewhat perplexed by this debate, and indeed by the Bill. I do not consider it to be enforc...

I am, of course, responsible for healthcare in England, so I will not trespass on the health need...

I have already taken an intervention from the hon. Member for North Antrim (Ian Paisley). I will ...

The Secretary of State has talked about addiction to nicotine. If, as she has suggested, vaping i...

The House has already legislated to ensure that vapes cannot be sold to people under 18. However,...

Will the Secretary of State give way?

No; I want to make some progress. I want to say something about the measures on vaping because, a...

I thank the Secretary of State for giving way; she is being very generous. The Bill gives her wid...

I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting that. I give a commitment here at the Dispatch Box that w...

Will the Secretary of State give way?

If the hon. Gentleman wants to dive in before I conclude, I will let him do so.

That is kind of the Secretary of State. I appreciate her taking these interventions.

Given ...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising a really important point. May I, through him, thank the ne...

On the Secretary of State’s point about tackling illicit tobacco, I raised that question with the...

My hon. Friend gives me the ideal opportunity to talk about my favourite criminal offence: cheati...

Will the Secretary of State give way?

I am going to conclude. In fairness, I have been generous with my time.

We want to build a ...

I will try not to impose a strict time limit. If I were wishing to speak, I would start to think ...

Until the early 2000s, every pub you walked into was filled with smoke. One in every four people ...

On the issue of unity, does the hon. Gentleman agree with the comment made by his colleague the h...

My hon. Friend the Member for York Central made the really good point—a point that needs to be we...

rose—

I will happily give way. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman would like to take the opportunity to a...

I will resist the hon. Gentleman’s offer. He has just said that vaping should only ever be used t...

The record will show that I answered the right hon. Gentleman’s question. I talked about banning ...

Going back to the subject of what we are trying to debate rather than playing a political game, I...

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her intervention. It falls to me to defend the Government agai...

rose—

Perhaps the hon. Member will tell us.

The hon. Member is putting me on the wrong side of this argument as a former smoker, so I would a...

I do not know whether there is a problem with the speaker system in here, because this is the sec...

Just to be clear, we will consult on this. It is a simple question that requires a simple answer:...

Mr Deputy Speaker, we are now in this parallel universe where the Secretary of State is asking me...

The hon. Gentleman is not listening. He has been asked repeatedly whether he supports the concept...

Honestly, Mr Deputy Speaker, you just can’t help some people. I am trying to help the Secretary o...

I want to go back to the point about consultation. I think that the hon. Gentleman has agreed tha...

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for her intervention. I think she makes a perfectly sensible...

I am trying to follow the hon. Gentleman’s argument to its logical conclusion. He talks about sub...

I think that is extraordinary. I do not think that smoking is slightly harmful; I think it is the...

I proudly call myself a libertarian, because I believe in the fundamental value of freedom of dec...

I admire the right hon. Gentleman for sticking to his convictions as a libertarian in making that...

A couple of years back, Newham did a survey and discovered that 4% of year 6 children—that is 10 ...

I strongly agree with my hon. Friend, and I am very familiar with Community Links, which does bri...

Order. I remind everyone that there is a lot of interest in this debate, particularly among Gover...

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.

I am not speaking in this debate because I love smoking, alth...

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

I will not give way to the hon. Lady—[Hon. Members: “Oh.”] I will not give way. I will give exact...

Health police!

They are the health police, and people are concerned about this. They want to be able to make the...

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

No, I am not giving way to the party that filibustered on my Bill and stopped us taking action to...

Did my right hon. Friend hear the comments of Sir Chris Whitty on the radio this morning? He refu...

My hon. Friend makes absolutely the right point. There are double standards in this debate. My vi...

As my right hon. Friend will know, I was in the Chamber on that Friday listening to the filibuste...

I certainly do not support the liberalisation of those drugs. We know that people who become addi...

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for Members of this House to attack indivi...

I will allow that to rest on the record.

3.1 pm

I am pleased to speak here today in favour of the Bill, part 2 of which specifically relates to S...

As the hon. Lady knows, as we worked on this subject together, I brought forward a ten-minute rul...

I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s intervention. As she knows, it is important for us to look at d...

The proliferation of vapes has happened almost overnight. Does my hon. Friend share the concerns ...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that important point. I can understand the concerns of...

Order. Let me just remind Members of the seven-minute guidance.

3.13 pm

I start with a spoiler alert: I will be voting to give the Tobacco and Vapes Bill a Second Readin...

I support the Bill in principle, and will vote for its Second Reading later, because it is an ant...

I am listening closely to what the hon. Gentleman says because I share his passion for driving co...

The hon. Gentleman jumps to a point that I will cover later in my remarks.

Most of the vape...

When I was appointed Health Secretary in 2021, we were still in the midst of the pandemic. That c...

First, I want to put on record my thanks to the public health Minister the right hon. Member for ...

Does the hon. Member accept that that difficulty puts the onus on the retailer, who is meant to d...

Colleagues across the House have genuine concerns about that point. I know from engagements in my...

I remind colleagues to stick to the guidance of seven minutes, because otherwise I will have to i...

I start my speech by saying that there are some good parts of this Bill. The banning of disposabl...

My right hon. Friend is making some extremely valid points. Freedom with responsibility and freed...

My hon. Friend is quite right. That is the legal position under the law in this country if we hav...

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

I will not. I have given way once and want to stick to my time. I will not support the Bill, beca...

It is right that the Government bring forward this legislation, but I remind the House that Labou...

I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Sir Jake Berry) for his speech...

Let me first put on record that I worked in respiratory medicine for 20 years before coming to th...

Everyone would like to see a cessation of smoking. People stopping for good, let alone starting a...

My right hon. Friend is making some extremely important points. He seems to be saying that, howev...

That is exactly what I am saying. The Government’s aim to create a generation of smoke-free peopl...

I remind colleagues that if they go quite a long way over the guidance, it does mean that others ...

I draw attention to my role as a vice chair of the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and h...

How many times has that offence been prosecuted?

That is an interesting question. There have been only a handful of prosecutions because the legis...

I would like to point out three things at the outset. First, I used to be a smoker. I was probabl...

I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. Surely this should be something that should evolve? A...

I could not agree more.

To conclude, I cannot vote for a Bill that treats adults unequally ...

Order. I have nothing against interventions, but I suggest that if colleagues take interventions,...

I rise to speak in support of this important Bill. Smoking is entirely harmful and there are no b...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I will not give way at this stage, I am afraid.

It is still the case that more than one in ...

I wish to declare almost an opposite interest: I have never smoked a cigarette or a cigar in my l...

I would like to start with some figures from my local authority area and my constituency. Smoking...

I believe it is a noble cause to encourage people to give up smoking or not to take it up in the ...

It is a pleasure to be called in this debate, although I confess it is one that has depressed me,...

On the “what next?” point, when I was Public Health Minister, we brought in the sugar tax with th...

That would arguably be perfectly sensible, but it is different from a ban. The point is about the...

My right hon. Friend says that drugs destroy lives, but tobacco does not. What about the people w...

With respect to my hon. Friend, I said that those drugs destroy communities. There is a profound ...

I rise in support of the Government’s Bill. One of the first speakers this afternoon was my hon. ...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I will not, because I have only a minute left.

The hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Ma...

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie), I was a smoker for many a year. I gave...

Fifteen years of experience of leading and scrutinising complicated legislation tells me to be ca...

There is clearly a fair amount of agreement in the House about what we are trying to achieve. No ...

This is quite basic for me. I see the Bill as an opportunity to change the life chances and the l...

My dad used to smoke 60 John Player Specials a day. When he died in 2009, the last 20 years of hi...

As a former public health Minister, and a current vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group...

I have spent four years in this position, and as with most things in life, the more time we spend...

Order. There are more people here than I was expecting, so I hope we can limit our remarks to abo...

I rise to support the Bill and to make two declarations. First, I chair the all-party parliamenta...

Including the Deputy Prime Minister.

Including the Deputy Prime Minister. From that ban through to the 2015 progress on tobacco contro...

Order. I must impose a time limit of five minutes.

6.7 pm

The Bill sets two important principles crashing against each other: on the one hand, the principl...

What a fascinating afternoon of different speeches. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Chelms...

Order.

6.16 pm

I support the Bill’s aim to create the first smoke-free generation. It is bold and visionary, and...

I am not naturally inclined to want to ban things—I lean towards the Government intervening as li...

I rise in an unusual position, because I smoke like a chimney, but I will give the Government the...

I call the shadow Minister.

6.31 pm

It is a pleasure to respond to the debate on behalf of the Opposition. We have heard powerful con...

I want to start by thanking the many lung cancer and asthma charities, particularly ASH, for thei...

I thank the Minister for giving way. I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the Registe...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who makes such a powerful point and speaks with such authority. ...

If I had known that my right hon. Friend was such a keen smoker, I would not have recruited her t...

As I have said ever since I met my hon. Friend at the age of 18, he is always right. I can never ...

Before my right hon. Friend gets too furious about vaping, may I ask her to clarify two points on...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for raising those really important points. As I will come o...

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way as she ploughs through all of this. I wonder whether...

The hon. Lady is aware that there is already very restrictive advertising for smoking and vaping....