Far-right UK politician Nigel Farage goes on wild Aussie ciggie rant as he lashes plans to ban smoking outside of pubs
Far-right UK leader has gone on a wild rant about the cost of cigarettes in Australia while complaining about his country’s plan to ban smoking from pub gardens.
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Far-right UK politician Nigel Farage has erupted over leaked plans to ban smoking from pub gardens in England, claiming the nation will end up like Australia where smoking is “almost impossible”.
Holding a pint of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, the Reform UK leader warned government plans to restrict smoking outdoors would “kill off the traditional pub forever”.
“This is what I do, every day, and the prime minister wants to criminalise me,” Mr Farage bemoaned while standing outside a pub in central London.
“The danger of it is, they did this in Australia, they made smoking almost impossible, they taxed cigarettes to the extent where they’re now 35 pounds a packet,” he added.
Australian smokers are taxed at one of the highest rates in the world, with a typical 25 packet of cigarettes selling for over $50 and legislated plans to increase that price every year.
Mr Farage claimed criminal gangs Down Under “don’t bother with cocaine” and instead “run the whole tobacco industry”.
“Shops everywhere sell cigarettes under the counter, hairdressers sell them, newsagents sell them,” he claimed.
“You’ve now got gang warfare – there’s been 97 firebombing arsenal attacks in Melbourne alone in the last two years.
“If you take a legal activity and you effectively criminalise it, you hand it over – literally – into the hands of the bad guys.”
Mr Farage’s claims about Australia’s “tobacco wars” are largely correct.
A suspicious blaze at a Sydenham tobacconist last week marked the 97th illicit tobacco-linked firebombing in Melbourne since March last year, according to the Herald Sun.
In an article for The Conversation, Deakin University criminology expert David Bright and lecturer James Martin warned about the “unintended consequences” of increasing cigarette taxes: “the rise of a lucrative and expanding black market”.
“Emerging black markets tend to attract established organised crime groups, which have the capacity to use violence to enforce contracts, collect debts and threaten competitors,” they wrote.
Mr Farage’s rant in defence of smoking - which kills an estimated 50 people in Australia every day - was largely mocked after being shared by GB political editor Christopher Hope.
“Lung cancer bad,” one viewer wrote on X.
“Why are people all of a sudden so worried about other humans smoking in a designated appropriate environment?,” added a second.
“There are much bigger issues within our country we need to fix, not just address.”
“Any new law which will keep Nigel Farage out of my local pub is to be welcomed,” joked a third.
The latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare points to a decline in cigarette smoking, which remains the number one cause of preventable death in Australia.
The federal government has defended increasing cigarette prices and earlier this year announced a $188.5 million crackdown on black market tobacco, with the bulk of the funds being used to stop illegal imports from reaching Australia.
UK PM’s new smoking ban plot leaked
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed Thursday his government is considering extending smoking bans in some outdoor English areas, reportedly including pub gardens and outside stadiums, sparking a backlash among opponents.
The British leader said ministers are “going to take decisions in this space”, noting action was needed to curb preventable deaths and alleviate pressures on the beleaguered state-run National Health Service (NHS).
His comments follow media reports overnight that his new government may extend the existing indoor smoking ban to cover beer gardens and outdoor dining areas, stadium concourses, small parks and other places.
Pub and restaurant industry figures promptly criticised the mooted plans, arguing they could deter customers in a market already struggling with the long-term fallout from the pandemic and cost-of-living pressures.
But Starmer insisted that “we’ve got to take the action to reduce the burden on the NHS and reduce the burden on the taxpayer” from smoking-related preventable deaths.
“My starting point on this is to remind everyone that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking,” he said.
“It’s a huge burden on the NHS, and, of course, it’s a burden on the taxpayer. So, yes, we are going to take decisions in this space.” Starmer added “more details will be revealed” in due course, noting it was “important to get the balance right” but that the NHS was “on its knees”.
“We have to relieve the burden, and that’s why I spoke before the election about moving to a preventative model when it comes to health.”
Reem Ibrahim, of the right-wing Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) think tank, said extending the ban to some outdoor areas would be “another nail in the coffin for the pub industry”.
The IEA has in the past been criticised by health campaigners for receiving money from leading tobacco companies.
Meanwhile Tim Martin, founder of the J D Wetherspoon pub chain, said the proposed move raised a “libertarian issue”.
“The question is whether the government should interfere in individual liberties where danger is involved,” he added, pointing to other potentially perilous activities such as mountaineering and horse riding.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland outlawed smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces in 2007 following a similar ban in Scotland in 2006.
The Action on Smoking and Health charity has said there was a 2.4 percent reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks in England a year after the ban, saving the NHS millions of pounds
- With AFP
Originally published as Far-right UK politician Nigel Farage goes on wild Aussie ciggie rant as he lashes plans to ban smoking outside of pubs
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