One part of the UK might escape Starmer’s smoking ban, minister admits

One part of the UK might escape Keir Starmer’s flagship smoking ban because of a key post-Brexit deal with the European Union, a minister has admitted.

The government wants to ban smoking for an entire generation, potentially saving millions of lives by ensuring anyone currently aged 15 or younger will never be able to buy cigarettes legally.

The proposals were first put forward by Rishi Sunak but abandoned ahead of the 2024 general election. Labour has enthusiastically backed the plan since coming to power last summer.

But now, asked for a guarantee that it would apply in Northern Ireland – as well as England, Wales and Scotland – a minister could only say that was the government’s “intention”.

It follows warnings that the smoking ban risks breaching another key piece of legislation, the Windsor Framework deal with the EU.

This is designed to deal with the post-Brexit problem about what to do at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the scene of many atrocities during the Troubles, amid fears a so-called ‘hard border’ would lead to checkpoints that risk becoming the focus of future attacks.

In a bid to avoid that the UK and the EU agreed a system under which, when it comes to goods, NI aligns with EU laws.

Earlier this year former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland raised the alarm over the smoking ban, saying that, because it demands goods have to be treated as they would be in the EU, the law therefore requires that tobacco remain legal for adults over 18 in NI.

But the government’s bill would criminalise its sale to anyone born after 2009 across the UK, including in NI.

At the time Sir Robert said: “The right to buy legal goods like tobacco is protected under the Windsor Framework and the Good Friday Agreement. Strip that away, and the government is staring down the barrel of a serious legal defeat.

“If the Bill applies in Northern Ireland, we breach EU law. If it doesn’t, we fracture the UK’s internal market. Either way, we’re in breach of the treaty we signed just last year.”

He also warned that if Labour ministers ploughed ahead with the Bill as it was “we are heading straight for the courts”.

“The government must hit pause. Either negotiate an exemption… or remove Northern Ireland from the scope of the Bill,” he said.

Asked in the Commons by shadow minister Mike Wood for an assurance that the ban would apply in NI and that he has confirmed that with the EU, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn replied: “It is certainly the government's intention that the ban will apply in Northern Ireland, because I think it's very important that young people all over the United Kingdom are protected in the way in which the bill seeks to do.”

Shopkeepers found to be selling to anyone under age will receive on-the-spot fines of £200.

The legislation includes a total ban on vape advertising and sponsorship, including displays seen by children and young people such as on buses, in cinemas and in shop windows, bringing them in line with tobacco restrictions.

The health secretary Wes Streeting has enthusiastically backed the plans to create a “smoke-free generation” by gradually raising the age at which tobacco can be bought, arguing there is “no freedom in addiction”.