Boris lashes out at Rishi’s ‘mad’ smoking ban

Oh dear. Having his leadership questioned is becoming an almost-daily occurrence for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. When he announced he was going to introduce a smoking ban at the Conservative party conference in October, there were people in his own party rather aghast at the proposal, with more recent talk of a rebellion on the issue. And now Sunak’s predecessor Boris Johnson has sided with the PM’s rivals…

Sunak wants to phase out smoking by raising the legal age for the purchase of tobacco by one year, every year, from 2027 onwards. But the health-focused PM is facing a backlash from his own politicians. One group of parliamentarians is urging the Department for Health to save their cigars — prompting concerns from smoking groups that this would create a two-tier approach to tobacco that would unfairly target the working class.

During a talk at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference in Ottawa, Johnson didn’t quite manage to sing the praises of the man who cut short his time in Downing Street.