POLL OF THE DAY: Is Keir Starmer trying to turn Britain into a nanny state? - YOUR VERDICT

Keir Stamer, smoking

Keir Starmer's potential outdoor smoking ban has received lots of criticism

PA/Getty
Dimitris Kouimtsidis

By Dimitris Kouimtsidis


Published: 30/08/2024

- 05:00

Updated: 30/08/2024

- 19:42

GB News members were asked whether they think that Keir Starmer is trying to turn Britain into a nanny state

The Government has sparked fury among Britons after they suggested that they could be set to implement a ban on outdoor smoking.

The plans are part of a tougher Tobacco and Vapes Bill, with outdoor restaurants and open-air spaces at clubs to be most affected by the move.


The ban would also see smokers prevented from lighting up in pub gardens, outside football stadiums and even small parks.

Reacting to the ban on GB News, Director of the Popular Conservatives Mark Littlewood hit out at the "insane" decision by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

POLL OF THE DAY: Is Keir Starmer trying to turn Britain into a nanny state? - YOUR VERDICT

POLL OF THE DAY: Is Keir Starmer trying to turn Britain into a nanny state? - YOUR VERDICT

GB News

Littlewood said of the ban: "It's absolute insanity. Everybody in Britain knows smoking is addictive, it carries enormous health risks.

"But the idea that you can't light up a cigarette in a pub garden or a park or within 10 yards of a football stadium... the passing traffic will be polluting your lungs more than somebody lighting a cigarette. It is nannyism gone mad."

Hitting out at Starmer over the proposed crackdown, pub owner and commentator Adam Brooks predicted the ban would spell "disaster" for the hospitality industry, and questioned whether the PM is striving to be "the most hated Prime Minister in history".

Brooks raged: "Whoever is advising these people is just doing him up. What right has the Government got to tell me what people can do in my pub garden?

Keir Stamer, smokingKeir Starmer's potential outdoor smoking ban has received lots of criticismPA/Getty

"If they want to smoke, they can smoke. It's outdoors. I pay my taxes, I pay my business rates. Why shouldn't I have the call on what goes on in my garden?"

A whopping 99 per cent of GB News members who voted in the poll believe Starmer is trying to turn Britain into a nanny state.

Just one per cent did not agree.

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