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Rishi Sunak’s flagship smoking ban will not become law before the general election, it was announced on Thursday.
Commons leader Penny Mordaunt told MPs that only a handful of bills are likely to go on the statute book before parliament is prorogued at the end of Friday, ahead of the general election on July 4.
The victims and prisoners bill — which creates a compensation scheme for those affected by the infected blood scandal — and the Post Office Horizon system offences bill that exonerates sub-postmasters en masse are among the measures that will be rushed through during the final hours of lawmaking.
The final list, which resulted from negotiations between the government and opposition, includes the finance bill, as well as the digital markets bill, which aims to ensure fairer competition in the tech industry.
Sunak’s plan to stop all people born on or after January 1 2009 from ever legally buying cigarettes is likely to become a Tory manifesto vow instead.
When he announced the snap election on Wednesday, Sunak pledged that the Conservatives would “ensure that the next generation grows up smoke free”.
Other significant bills to fall by the wayside include the sprawling criminal justice bill, legislation introducing protections for renters and leaseholders, plus a bill to reform the governance of football in England.
Martyn’s law, a piece of legislation drawn up after the Manchester arena bombing that requires UK event venues and councils to draw up preventive plans to mitigate against terror attacks, was not on Mordaunt’s list.
The omission triggered accusations that Sunak had gone against his word after he made a promise on Wednesday — hours before calling the snap election — to the mother of Martyn Hett, the terror attack victim after whom the bill was named, that the measure would join the statute book before the summer recess.
Lucy Powell, Labour shadow leader of the Commons, expressed her hope that Martyn’s law would be passed swiftly by whichever party wins the election.
Hitting out at Sunak, she said his “abrupt dissolution of parliament means he will start the campaign leaving many government commitments and bills up in the air or in the bin”, including the flagship smoking ban.
The tobacco and vapes bill was at report stage in the House of Commons, but had not been introduced in the House of Lords. Convention holds that a bill must have been introduced in both chambers to become law during the final days of a parliament, a period known as the “wash up” phase.
MPs had overwhelmingly backed the smoking ban after being given a free vote. A Downing Street official stressed that free vote bills are seldom prioritised during the “wash up” period.
Nonetheless, Tory MPs critical of Sunak’s proposal had issued a public warning to him not to try and push it through before the election.
