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Britain is on course to ban smoking for an entire generation after Rishi Sunak forced through a historic vote in the House of Commons.
The prime minister saw off opponents on his own benches, led by the former PM Liz Truss, winning by 383 votes to 67.
The legislation, which will mean that anyone aged 15 or younger today will never be able to legally buy cigarettes, will slowly see the UK become a smoke-free state.
Earlier Mr Sunak urged members of his cabinet to think of “future generations” and back his flagship plans as he sought to avoid a humiliating backlash at the hands of his own party.
But the business secretary Kemi Badenoch was among those who voted against the plan, saying it undermined the principle of equality under the law by treating differently adults born just a day apart.
Another MP tipped as future Tory leadership candidate, ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick, also voted against the ban, saying it would “prove a nightmare to enforce”.
Ms Truss also hit out at what she described as a “virtue-signalling” piece of legislation and urged true Tories to reject it, saying there were enough “finger-wagging, nannying control freaks” on Labour’s benches.
Mr Sunak had been braced for more than 50 Tory MPs to defy his call and vote against the ban.
Ms Truss said it was “emblematic” of a “technocratic establishment” that wanted to “limit freedom”. Conservatives should “stand by our principles and our ideals,” she said.
She also told MPs she feared the “health police” would push on other issues if a ban was introduced. “People are concerned about this,” she told the House of Commons. “They want to be able to make their own decisions about what they eat, what they drink and how they enjoy themselves.”
Former health secretary Lord Clarke also warned the move risked being difficult to enforce.
“You will get to a stage where if you are 42 years of age, you will be able to buy them but someone aged 41 will not be allowed to,” he told The Telegraph. “Does that mean you will have to produce your birth certificate? It may prove very difficult to enforce. Future generations will have to see whether it works or not.”
Conservative MP and arch-Sunak critic Sir Simon Clarke also warned the plans risked “making smoking cooler” and “creating a black market”.
MPs had a free vote on the ban, which was announced by the prime minister with great fanfare at last year’s Conservative party conference.
The government decided not to whip the vote, saying it was a matter of conscience, leaving Tory MPs able to vote as they chose.
The bill had been expected to pass its first major parliamentary hurdle after Labour decided to back it.
Asked whether the PM would urge cabinet ministers to support the policy, his spokesman said: “He would urge everyone considering the Bill tonight to obviously vote with their conscience, but to consider that the bill is seeking to ensure that future generations are smoke-free.”
He also said the PM’s message was “if we want to build a better future for our children, we need to tackle the single biggest entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability and death, which is smoking.”
England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty said cigarettes were a product “designed to take your choice away” through addiction.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The great majority of smokers wish they had never started, but they become addicted at an early age and then they’re trapped and their choice has been taken away by that addiction.
“This is one of the reasons why the argument that ‘if you’re pro-choice, you’re in favour of cigarettes’ is so surprising because this is a product which is designed to take your choice away from you.”
His stance was backed by a Home Office minister who took up smoking at 12, who said she had “never met a single smoker who’s glad they did it”.
Laura Farris said her own personal smoking habit was “one of my biggest regrets” and that it took her “years and years and years to quit”.
Doctors and health charities had all urged MPs to vote in favour of the proposals. Professor Steve Turner, president of the Royal College for Paediatrics and Child Health, said the Bill would “without a doubt … save lives”, while Charmaine Griffiths, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said: “Decisive action is needed to end this ongoing public health tragedy”.
