Liz Truss: Health police will push for next ‘stage’ if smoking ban passes

Liz Truss, the former prime minister, told the House of Commons this afternoon that the government’s phased smoking ban is “fundamentally unconservative”.

In her first contribution to the House of Commons in 2024, she said: “I think the whole idea that we can protect adults from themselves is hugely problematic and effectively infantilising people. And my real fear is that this is not the final stage that the health police want to push”.

She added: “One of the practical implications of this, and I think it’s a very, very dangerous precedent, [is] that we start saying some adults can have the freedom to smoke and some can’t. That is a fundamental problem. It’s fundamentally unconservative, it’s unliberal”.

“I will not be supporting this bill.”, she added.

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