Prime Minister Keir Starmer has proposed tightening smoking rules to include a ban on smoking in some outdoor spaces.
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00:00The pub beer garden, public parks and outdoor sports venues. A proposed extension of rules
00:07around smoking could see lighting up in any of these places becoming illegal. It's part
00:12of plans for Britain to become smoke-free. Keir Starmer says he wants to take action
00:16against the preventable deaths smoking causes. The Prime Minister pointed out that smoking
00:20causes 80,000 deaths a year and this potential outdoor smoking ban could help reduce the
00:26burden on the NHS that the taxpayer currently funds. There have been dissenting voices.
00:30Reform UK's leader Nigel Farage is against the ban. He's concerned a ban would impinge
00:35on public freedoms while those working in hospitality are worried about a ban's impact
00:39on the night-time industries. But health groups and medical professionals are in support.
00:44Nicholas Hopkinson is a professor of respiratory medicine and said it was a sensible policy.
00:49But what about you? Are you in support of tougher restrictions on smoking in public?
00:53How big of a problem is smoking to the UK's public health? And as some hospitality business
00:58owners raise concerns, should it be up to pubs whether to go smoke-free or is the government
01:02right to step in?