Starmer may regret an outdoor smoking ban

It’s a curious political world. Few who voted Labour last month actually wanted Labour policies, or for that matter had more than the haziest idea what they were. Now the Labour leadership is returning the compliment. It is increasingly obvious that it has neither much idea what electors want, nor any great desire to provide them with it. Withdrawing the winter fuel allowance, going hell-bent for net zero (whatever the consequences), clamping down on our rights online, the list goes on. The government’s proposed extension of the smoking ban, leaked yesterday, is a further case in point.

The plan, apparently hatched in collusion with Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, looks at introducing a smoking ban in many public spaces: pub and club gardens, restaurant terraces, playgrounds, sports grounds, streets outside hospitals, nightclubs, schools and universities. It graciously accepts that we should continue to be allowed to smoke in homes, streets and wide-open spaces, but not in many other places.