LONDON — Nigel Farage said he would stop going to the pub if Labour goes ahead with a plan to ban outdoor smoking in Brits’ beloved watering holes.
The leading Brexiteer, known for downing pints in photo opportunities to boost his image as a man of the people, took aim after reports suggested the U.K. government is considering tighter restrictions on smoking outdoors as part of its ambition to phase out tobacco.
“The Labour party is showing its authoritarian socialist state control instincts and mentality,” the Reform UK leader wrote in a Telegraph op-ed. “The rumored ban on smoking in pub gardens or on the pavement outside pubs will kill off the traditional pub forever.
“For my own part, I simply would not go to the pub ever again if these restrictions are imposed.”
It comes after the Sun reported Thursday that the U.K. is mulling banning smoking at pub gardens, outside nightclubs and sports stadiums, restaurant terraces and pavements by universities.
Pressed on the claim during a trip to Paris Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not rule out such a move: “We are going to take decisions in this space. More details will be revealed but this is a preventable cause of deaths and we’ve got to take the action to reduce the burden on the NHS and reduce the burden on the taxpayer.”
The move would be part of the government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill announced in its legislative program last month. The law would ban anyone born after 2008 from ever legally purchasing tobacco. The plan was first initiated by Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and supported by Labour.
It’s not the first time Farage has hit out at perceived state overreach. The Reform UK leader criticized the second and third Covid-19 lockdowns as the “the biggest mistake ever made by a British government in peacetime,” slammed the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Preparedness Treaty and stuffed himself with chocolate over Easter to protest obesity measures.
“The Puritans are on the march,” Farage wrote.
