UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed on Thursday his government is considering extending smoking bans in some outdoor English areas, reportedly including pub gardens and outside stadiums, sparking a backlash among opponents.
The British leader said ministers are “going to take decisions in this space”, noting action was needed to curb preventable deaths and alleviate pressures on the beleaguered state-run National Health Service (NHS).
His comments follow media reports overnight that his new government may extend the existing indoor smoking ban to cover beer gardens and outdoor dining areas, stadium concourses, small parks and other places.
Pub and restaurant industry figures promptly criticised the mooted plans, arguing they could deter customers in a market already struggling with the long-term fallout from the pandemic and cost-of-living pressures.
But Starmer insisted that “we’ve got to take the action to reduce the burden on the NHS and reduce the burden on the taxpayer” from smoking-related preventable deaths.
“My starting point on this is to remind everyone that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking,” he said.
“It’s a huge burden on the NHS, and, of course, it’s a burden on the taxpayer. So, yes, we are going to take decisions in this space.”
Starmer added “more details will be revealed” in due course, noting it was “important to get the balance right” but that the NHS was “on its knees”.
“We have to relieve the burden, and that’s why I spoke before the election about moving to a preventative model when it comes to health.”
Reem Ibrahim, of the right-wing Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) think tank, said extending the ban to some outdoor areas would be “another nail in the coffin for the pub industry”.
The IEA has in the past been criticised by health campaigners for receiving money from leading tobacco companies.
Meanwhile, Tim Martin, founder of the J D Wetherspoon pub chain, said the proposed move raised a “libertarian issue”.
“The question is whether the government should interfere in individual liberties where danger is involved,” he added, pointing to other potentially perilous activities such as mountaineering and horse riding.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland outlawed smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces in 2007 following a similar ban in Scotland in 2006.
The Action on Smoking and Health charity has said there was a 2.4 percent reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks in England a year after the ban, saving the NHS millions of pounds.