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Should everyone born after 2009 be banned from smoking? What Yahoo readers think
Yahoo readers were asked for their views on plans to ban the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009.
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After 72 hours the poll closes and, each Friday, we'll publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.
Government plans to ban young people from being able to legally smoke tobacco got a step closer to becoming law after its bill cleared its first hurdle.
Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill passed by 383 votes to 67 – a majority of 316 – at its second reading in the House of Commons on Tuesday - the second of 11 parliamentary stages it must pass through to become law.
The Labour Party supports the proposed legislation, so it is unlikely the bill will not be voted through in its coming stages.
The proposed legislation will make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January, 2009. This covers children who are currently 15 or younger.
It would not ban smoking outright as anyone who can legally buy tobacco now will be able to continue to do so if the bill becomes law.
It will also give the government new powers to clamp down on young people vaping, which include imposing restrictions on flavours and regulating the way they are packaged and sold to make them less appealing to children.
Yahoo News UK asked our readers for their thoughts on the ban of the sale of cigarettes, here are the results:
Our poll from Monday at midday until midday Thursday asked: 'Should the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2009 be banned?'.
It received 7,723 votes and showed over half of Yahoo readers think that the sale of cigarettes should be banned to those born after 2009.
Some 53% of voters said they agreed with the ban, while 41% disagrees, and 6% said they weren't sure.
53% of voters said they agree that the sale of cigarettes should be banned to those born after 2009
Yahoo News UK readers were also asked: "Out of 10, how strongly do feel about banning people smoking?"
This poll received 4,528 votes with the average strength-of-feeling score on all the votes 7.022, suggesting readers felt fairly strongly about the topic.
The average strength-of-feeling score on all the votes was 7.022
Our original poll article can be found here.
The public has previously indicated it would back a smoking ban. In a YouGov poll from September 2023, 71% of Britons said they would support raising the legal smoking age by one year each year. Only 17% opposed it.
Announcing the plans last year, Rishi Sunak said he was motivated by wanting to “build a better and brighter future for our children”.
Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer. According to official figures, the habit causes about one in four deaths from cancer and leads to 64,000 deaths in England per year.
According to the government, creating a “smoke-free generation” could prevent more than 470,000 cases of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other diseases by the end of the century.
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