Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Lord Bethell Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for bringing the Bill to this House so thoughtfully and clearly. I also declare my interest as a consultant to Oviva, an obesity treatment company, and my wife’s role as a non-executive director at Tesco and Diageo.

It is a great honour to be so far down the list, because this has been a very rich debate and we have heard some very touching and powerful testimony. As the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, put it, we have heard some particularly personal stories, particularly from the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, and the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Drefelin, of people who were brought up with smoking and who either were orphaned or had their lives devastated by it. These stories should move us, and it is very powerful that they were brought to the House in this way.

We have also heard a lot of depressing talk of violence, gangs, the diminution of civil rights, the breakdown of societal values and a complete collapse of market mechanisms because of the unintended consequences of the Bill. I will spend a moment to talk about some of the other unintended consequences, which are the huge benefits that the Bill might bring to our economy, society and national security.

We are really blessed to live in a time when modern medicine is delivering miracles that can keep us alive well into our 70s, 80s and 90s, but the things that hold us back are the bad habits and pollutions which mean that chronic disease in this country is exploding. The projection is of 40 million people with a chronic disease by 2040, according to the Health Foundation. The reason for that is junk food, inactivity, bad air, filth on the internet that gives us mental health issues, and smoking. That kind of pollutant is causing immense harm to our families, our communities and our economy.

I welcome the Bill’s emphatic intervention. It is not a half-measure protecting big tobacco’s grip on our lives. Let us have no more Treasury nihilism or medical fatalism, and no more free market complacency. I like the Bill because it will ultimately get rid of smoking forever, and I celebrate that decisive step towards a healthier, more prosperous Britain. The unintended consequence will be a massively more prosperous life.

My only regret is that the Bill does not go further and faster. I hear very clearly the reservations people have about the Bill and I do not want to give the impression that I do not understand the practical restrictions on the Government. However, there are two measures that could make a big difference, and one more on vaping.

First, there is an opportunity to integrate the Khan review’s recommendations more emphatically by increasing funding to cessation programmes and tightening market controls even further, and moving towards a complete smoking extinction target of 2040. By that, I mean completely eradicating smoking in the UK. In other words, I mean upgrading the Bill from a transition measure towards gradual reduction to an absolute and total eradication, saving lives, reducing inequality and setting a global precedent.

If we did that, we would give clarity to the industry, which I hope many in the Chamber would welcome. It would recognise and answer many of the concerns about the extended generational nature of the Bill that creates potentially ludicrous scenarios a long time in the future. I hope the noble Lords, Lord Moylan, Lord Sharpe, Lord Brady, Lord Murray and Lord Scriven, the noble Earl, Lord Leicester, and the noble Baroness, Lady Meyer, will think about supporting this measure when I bring it to the House as an amendment, in order to answer their concerns on that point.

Secondly, I strongly back the introduction of a profit-based levy, as the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, referred to. This measure, with 79% public approval, would ensure that the industry contributes fully to cessation programmes and our overstretched public health.

On vaping, I welcome the thoughtful debate we have had already. The question for me is: what kind of vaping industry do we want? Do we want a small, tightly controlled market selling vapes to former smokers, turning over around £1 billion, which is where it is at the moment, or something bigger? My instincts are that a sprawling, £10 billion industry that leaves our children to pay for the potential long-term health consequences is something that we should try to avoid.

This Bill is a huge opportunity. Let us not allow exaggerated concerns from the tobacco industry playbook to hold us back. Instead, let us lean in.