Could Streeting’s smoking ban breach Brexit terms?

Labour ministers are very keen to be good Europeans. But could the cause of closer continental ties come at the price of Wes Streeting’s smoking ban? Tobacco firms are perplexed as to how proposals to ban tobacco products for younger Brits will work in Northern Ireland. Under the terms of the UK’s revised Withdrawal Agreement, EU law continues to apply in certain respects here. Among the provisions of EU law is the snappily-named TPD2 – the EU’s second Tobacco Products Directive.

This was implemented in the UK in 2016 and continues to apply now to Northern Ireland. Under the UK’s post-Brexit deal, Article 4 obliges the government to give the same effect to provisions of EU law which are made applicable by the Withdrawal Agreement as they have in EU member states. Under TPD2, ‘Member States may not… prohibit or restrict the placing on the market of tobacco or related products which comply with this Directive.’