King’s Speech

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Lab)]

My Lords, like other speakers in your Lordships’ debate today, I would like to extend the warmest of welcomes to my noble friend Lady Smith of Malvern and to congratulate her on her quite excellent maiden speech from the Front Bench. I should just say that it is particularly gratifying to us in Worcestershire that she has included “of Malvern” in her title.

I am also delighted to see my noble friend Lady Merron in her place as the Health Minister in your Lordships’ House. She was a brilliant shadow Minister and her appointment is wholly deserved. She has always been a great supporter of the health issue that has been closest to my heart in the 25 years that I have been here and which happily featured in the gracious Speech on Wednesday. I refer of course to the Government’s decision to go ahead with legislation based on the previous Administration’s Bill eventually to phase out tobacco smoking completely. This will do more to deliver Labour’s manifesto commitment to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England. Smoking is responsible for half the difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest in society, with smoking rates among those working in routine and manual jobs almost three times higher than rates for those in managerial and professional roles. Tackling this inequality will alleviate a major health and economic burden on regions and nations across the United Kingdom.

In addition to preventing the next generation becoming addicted to smoking, we must also ensure that the 6 million existing smokers get the support they need to quit and are not left behind as we move towards a smoke-free future. Can my noble friend confirm that the Government will publish a road map to a smoke-free Britain, as was committed to in Labour’s health mission last year? A new strategy is urgently needed to set out the measures necessary to end smoking for every group in society.

My noble friend will be aware of the powerful open letter sent to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health published in the BMJ on 8 July. It pointed out:

“The last Labour government launched Smoking Kills, the first cross-government tobacco control plan, a year after coming to power in 1997. This drove substantial declines in smoking among adults and children after two decades when little or no progress had been made”.


Labour cannot achieve its manifesto commitment to halve differences in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions unless it prioritises the ending of smoking.

While most smokers start as children, every day 350 young adults start smoking, risking a lifetime of addiction, disease and premature death. Smoking puts pressure on our NHS and social care system, but the greatest financial impact is due to lost productivity. The estimated cost to the UK economy in 2023 was £55 billion, made up of £2.2 billion to the NHS, £18 billion in social care costs and £34 billion in lost productivity.

Labour backed the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in Opposition and in its manifesto. Indeed, phasing out smoking was a policy put forward by Labour before the Conservative Prime Minister introduced the legislation. Measures to prevent vapes being marketed to children, which will be part of the Bill, are urgently needed. I do not doubt for one minute the sincerity of the Health Ministers who served in the previous Administration in tackling the scourge of smoking, particularly the noble Lords, Lord Markham and Lord Kamall, who of course were always urged on by the indefatigable noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham.

I always had the feeling, however, that far too much attention was being paid to the lobbying of the tobacco industry, which spotted early on that vapes offered a lucrative alternative means of getting its customers addicted to nicotine. Big tobacco killed over 100 million people in the 20th century and is on track to kill 1 billion in the 21st, mainly in low and middle-income countries. The UK now has the chance to lead the world in phasing out smoking. The new Government must seize it with both hands and I wholeheartedly support the inclusion of a tobacco and vapes Bill in the gracious Speech.