Tobacco and Vapes Bill: Second Reading

Parliament voted on 26 November 2024 to give the Tobacco and Vapes Bill its second reading, passing it by 415 votes to 47. A second reading is the first full parliamentary vote on a bill, approving its general principles and allowing it to proceed to detailed scrutiny. The bill would create a generational ban on tobacco sales by making it illegal to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, meaning the minimum purchase age rises by one year every year until smoking is, in theory, eliminated as a commercial activity. The practical effect, if the bill completes its passage, is that young people entering adulthood today will never legally be able to buy tobacco. It also tightens rules on vaping and nicotine products, bans vending machines for those products, restricts advertising, and introduces a retail licensing scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Smokers already over the age threshold are unaffected, but every subsequent cohort of new adults would be permanently excluded from purchasing tobacco. The bill also gives ministers powers to extend smoke-free rules to some outdoor settings, though the government confirmed during the debate that it does not intend to include outdoor pub spaces. The vote cut across normal party lines. All 289 Labour and 33 Labour and Co-operative MPs present voted in favour, as did the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. Thirty-two Conservative MPs voted against, while 23 voted with the government; 61 Conservatives had no vote recorded. Seven Liberal Democrats voted no, against 37 who supported the bill. All six Reform UK MPs who voted did so against. The bill had originally been introduced under the previous Conservative government by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, giving it an unusual cross-party origin that featured prominently in the debate.