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UK has lowest smoking rate despite Sunak’s 'bizarre' tobacco ban

UK has lowest smoking rate despite Sunak’s 'bizarre' tobacco ban
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Rishi Sunak’s tobacco ban is “preposterous”, “unenforceable” and “bizarre”, Sir John Hayes has said, after a recent report stated that Britain already has lowest smoking rates owing to some of the toughest laws and highest taxes on cigarettes in Europe.

According to a recent report, UK already leads Europe on breaking habit even without tighter restrictions proposed by Sunak. The Telegraph stated that an analysis shows that Britain was slowly winning the war on the habit when MPs agreed to the annual increase to the minimum legal age to buy tobacco.


Hayes, the chairman of the Common Sense Group of backbench MPs, said the ban was “preposterous”, “unenforceable” and “bizarre”.

“There’s a ludicrous quality to it,” he said. “Can you really imagine someone of 49 being challenged for their birth certificate to make sure they are 49 and not 48?”

Sir John, who abstained in the vote, said it was “good news” that fewer people were smoking and dying from smoking-related illnesses.

He said the law should focus on the “explosion” of vaping in children and the sale of black market tobacco.

UK was estimated to have the lowest smoking rates in Europe after Iceland, with 14.2 per cent of the population being smokers, according to the World Health Organisation.

In France and Germany, it is 34.6 and 21.6 per cent, while in Bulgaria and Serbia it is 39.5 per cent. The figures are adjusted to ensure age profiles are similar across all countries to give a clearer sense of prevalence.

There had been a 23.4 per cent drop in the number of smokers from 37.6 to 14.2 per cent of the population from 2000 to 2022, which was the fourth highest decrease in Europe after Norway, Austria and Sweden.

Additionally, no other Western European country has seen the price of cigarettes rise so steeply as in Britain, which is one reason smoking levels have dropped, according to price inflation data.

Since 2009, prices have soared by 177 per cent. In France, they have risen almost as much by 151 per cent, while in Poland they rose by 126 per cent, stated the report, adding that after Jeremy Hunt’s recent Spring Budget , the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes will top £16.

Anti-smoking rules in the UK are among Europe’s strictest, with only Sweden having tougher regulations.

Using data from Smoke Free Partnership, the anti-smoking charity, the UK ranks joint second when looking at the stringency and compliance of rules already in effect.

Simon Clark, the director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said, “With smoking rates at their lowest recorded levels in all age groups in the UK, banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults makes very little sense.

“The desire to intervene, regulate and accelerate change must be challenged because not only is it unnecessary, it’s illiberal, divisive, and potentially counterproductive,” he added.

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Leerdammer launches ‘Talk It Out’ initiative in support of YoungMinds charity

Leerdammer launches ‘Talk It Out’ initiative in support of YoungMinds charity

Natural cheese slice brand Leerdammer has launched a new initiative, "Talk It Out", in support of YoungMinds. The new mental health programme will use comedy to help parents and young people to get talking and have better conversations about mental wellbeing.

Research shows that three-quarters (76 per cent) of parents said their children’s mental health had deteriorated while waiting for support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

To launch Talk It Out, award-winning Bristol born comedian Stuart Goldsmith performed a one-off special stand-up gig at the Bristol Grammar School on 13 January. Encouraging students and parents to tackle talking about mental wellbeing through humour, attendees were also signposted to the expert support, advice and guidance that YoungMinds offers.

Lactalis UK & Ireland hope to roll the initiative out across the UK later in the year, to reach and support even more families in need.

“We have developed an initiative that we hope will really have a positive impact on young people’s mental health but also, importantly, raise awareness of YoungMinds so they can guide parents and their children towards accessing better mental health care," said Heloise Le Norcy-Trott, Group Marketing Director at Lactalis UK & Ireland.

"Leerdammer is an uplifting and comedic brand, so we were motivated to tap into our unique personality with a partnership that would really make a difference among local communities. It’s clear that talking about mental health can be hard, but humour is a great way of initiating a conversation about difficult subjects which are often avoided by families. We hope by using Leedammer to support YoungMinds – and by bringing comedians in to speak to the students – they and their parents will see how essential it is to start these conversations and realise there is support out there available to them.

“We are piloting the idea this month, then aiming to roll this out across the UK later in the year so we can reach and support even more families in need. We are always looking at ways to strengthen our positive impact across the UK and are grateful to Stuart Goldsmith for taking time to help spread the word.”

Vernon Samuels, Parent Engagement Officer at YoungMinds said: “We are delighted that Leerdammer is bringing attention to YoungMinds services in this way and helping to open up the conversation about children and young people’s mental health through “Talk it Out”. Our Parent Engagement Officer in Bristol will be providing community outreach and parent / carer engagement sessions to create a safe space for parents to get peer support, and this initiative will help us reach more people who need YoungMinds’ support.”

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