UK smoking ban risks breaching post-Brexit deal, ex-Tory justice secretary warns
Government’s smoking ban ‘risks breaching post-Brexit deal’
- A proposed UK smoking ban, supported by Keir Starmer, risks breaching the post-Brexit Windsor Framework, according to former Tory justice secretary Robert Buckland.
- The ban, which would make it illegal for anyone born after 2008 to buy tobacco, conflicts with EU law requiring tobacco to remain legal for adults over 18 in Northern Ireland under the Framework.
- Buckland warns that applying the ban to Northern Ireland would breach EU law, while excluding it would fracture the UK's internal market, leading to a breach of the signed treaty.
- He urges the Government to pause the Bill and either negotiate an exemption for Northern Ireland or remove it from the Bill's scope to avoid a legal and constitutional crisis.
- Despite these warnings, the Government believes the measures drafted in the Bill are consistent with its obligations under the Windsor Framework.