Labour’s hopes of holding onto the Red Wall will go up in smoke if it presses ahead with a ban on anyone born after January 1, 2009 buying tobacco products, campaigners have warned. The Freedom Association claims the planned ban will drive voters Sir Keir Starmer cannot afford to lose away from the Labour party.
Polling by Whitestone Insight found many working class voters will be turned off by the anti-smoking move. While 17% of the “DE” social group – which covers semi-skilled & unskilled manual occupations – said it would make them less likely to vote Labour, just 6% said they would be more likely to back Sir Keir’s party.
This has triggered predictions that Labour could take a serious blow in its traditional “Red Wall” heartlands.
Nearly one in five (19%) people who backed Reform at the last general election – and 16% of those who voted Labour – said it would make them less likely to support Labour. A mere 2% of Reform supporters said it would make them more likely to vote Labour.
David Campbell Bannerman, chairman of the Freedom Association, said: “It is abundantly clear that this so-called generational smoking ban is deeply unpopular with key areas of the public. The Red Wall will be on fire.
“Any party that wishes to have a serious chance of winning the next election must commit to rejecting the plainly unworkable and unreasonable ban.”
Throughout the whole population, 14% said the ban would make them less likely to vote Labour, with 11% saying they would be more likely.
However, there is strong support among the Greens and the Liberal Democrats for the so-called generational smoking ban. Just 6% of Green voters and 9% of Lib Dem supporters would be less likely to back Sir Keir’s party if it is brought in; with 15% of each party’s supporters saying the move would make it more likely for them to support Labour.
The proposals were originally unveiled by then Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023 with the goal of “protecting our kids from ever taking up smoking”. His Government claimed smoking causes “around one in four cancer deaths” and costs “the economy and wider society £17 billion each year”.
Similar legislation was passed in New Zealand but was axed before it came into force.
The Department of Health and Social Care has been invited to comment.