Majority of Britons would support banning sale of cigarettes or tobacco to anyone born after 2008

Most Brits would back a ban on the sale of cigarettes or tobacco to anyone born after 2008, a YouGov survey has revealed.

Fifty-seven per cent of British people would support the legislation to bar younger generations from purchasing smoking-related products, while 34 per cent said they would ‘strongly’ support it.

The results come after New Zealand introduced this very legislation for people born on and after 2009, meaning that they will never legally be able to smoke.

Its radical new law will also see the minimum age for purchasing cigarettes going up in an effort to make the country cigarette-free by 2025.

New Zealand has made it illegal to ever sell cigarettes to people born in 2009 or later — those who are currently aged 13 and under — in the hopes of creating a generation of non-smokers (file image) 

So, in theory, someone trying to buy a packet of cigarettes 50 years from now would need ID to prove that they were at least 63 years old. 

The UK has seen a similar set of anti-smoking bans implemented over the last 20 years and a plan set out in 2019 to make England smoke-free by 2030.

Indoor smoking was outlawed in almost all enclosed public spaces during 2006 in Scotland, and the rest of the UK followed this in 2007.

Health warnings on cigarette packets were also enforced in 2008 and seven years later smoking in the presence of children in cars was banned in England. 

More recent advancements have included plans from Sajid Javid to cut the number of smokers by rising the legal age to 21.

Just one in eight adults in Britain were frequent users in 2021, down by five per cent on last year, according to the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Population Survey (blue line). Meanwhile, 4million over-16s now use e-cigarettes — up by a fifth in just 12 months (red line)

 Earlier this year a spokesman for the UK Government’s Department of Health said that tackling smoking issues was a ‘priority’ for the office

Yet, in 2020, Cancer Research UK forecasted that it will be at least 2037 before the Government’s pledged smoking-free target is met.

In 2021, one in eight adult Brits were frequent smokers or vapers according to the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Population Survey.

Cancer Research UK said that rates would need to drop 40 per cent faster than they are currently for the target to be hit. 

And even then, ‘smoke-free’ was measured as just five per cent of adults smoking as opposed to a total eradication of the habit. 

But earlier this year, a Government Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Tackling issues such as smoking is a priority for the office for health improvement and disparities, and a key part of the government’s levelling up agenda.’