MPs roll back plans for phased smoking ban

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Helen Morgan, who voted for the bill, said her party “100% supports” measures in the legislation to tackle youth vaping.

But he said the phased smoking ban was “problematic” and raised issues of “practicality and civil liberties”.

He warned that this raises the possibility that people who choose to take up smoking will potentially have to carry an ID card for the rest of their lives; he “strongly opposed” it due to “issues of privacy and personal freedom”.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Andrew Rosundall argued that “banning things very rarely works”, adding: “Surely we should be promoting the concept of freedom with responsibility and allowing people to make choices about their own lives?”

Defending the plans, Streeting said tobacco was “uniquely addictive” and harmful.

“There is no freedom in addiction,” he told MPs.