Keir Starmer’s flagship smoking ban risks breaching a key post-Brexit deal with the European Union and is “heading straight for the courts”, a former Tory justice secretary has warned.
Robert Buckland says he was initially supportive of the plans, which will see Britain ban smoking for an entire generation.
But now he says the government “must hit pause” or risk a legal car crash.
Under the plans anyone currently aged 15 or younger will never be able to buy cigarettes legally, as the UK slowly becomes a smoke-free country.
The idea was launched with great fanfare by Rishi Sunak, but enthusiastically backed by Labour when the Tories were kicked out of power last summer.
But now Sir Robert warns the policy risks breaching another key piece of legislation signed by Mr Sunak, the Windsor Framework with the EU.
It is designed to deal with the post-Brexit problem about what to do at Northern Ireland’s border, the scene of many atrocities during the Troubles.
There were fears that Brexit could make the land border between NI and the Republic of Ireland a so-called ‘hard border’ again, with checkpoints that risked becoming the focus of future attacks.
In a bid to avoid that the UK and the EU agreed a system under which, when it comes to goods, NI aligns with EU laws.
Sir Robert warns that EU law therefore requires that tobacco remain legal for adults over 18 in NI.
But the new Bill would criminalise its sale to anyone born after 2008 across the UK, including in NI.
It is understood the government believes that the measures drafted in the Bill are consistent with the UK’s obligations under the Windsor Framework.
Sir Robert says the disconnect means the Bill, in its current form, is on a collision course with international law and ministers are sleepwalking into a constitutional and legal car crash.
“If the Bill applies in Northern Ireland, we breach EU law. If it doesn’t, we fracture the UK’s internal market. Either way, we’re in breach of the treaty we signed just last year,” he said.
He added: “The Windsor Framework is not political window dressing, it’s international law. And if Parliament pushes ahead with this Bill as-is, we are heading straight for the courts.
“Northern Ireland’s courts have already shown they will strike down UK laws that conflict with the Framework. That is not theoretical, it's real, it's recent, and it's relevant.
“The government must hit pause. Either negotiate an exemption… or remove Northern Ireland from the scope of the Bill. Anything else is reckless.”
“The right to buy legal goods like tobacco is protected under the Windsor Framework and the Good Friday Agreement. Strip that away, and the government is staring down the barrel of a serious legal defeat.”
The Department of Health has been approached for comment.
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