UK PM Starmer supports tougher outdoor smoking rules to ease pressure on health service

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday he supported the idea of banning smoking in some outdoor spaces, including pub gardens, as a way of reducing the pressure on the state-run National Health Service and the cost to taxpayers.

While precise details would be worked out later, Starmer said 80,000 people die each year from smoking and he wanted to reduce deaths from preventable diseases.

Asked if he supported a ban on smoking in some public places, including pub gardens, Starmer told Channel 4 News: "I want us to move to a smoke-free environment, want to reduce those preventable deaths. I want to reduce the burden on the NHS, desperately needed ... and obviously I want to reduce the burden on the taxpayer. So, yes, I am supportive."

The government is considering a smoking ban in pub and restaurant gardens and ­terraces, outdoor sports stadiums, children's parks and pavements near hospitals and universities, according to documents seen by The Sun newspaper.

Britain's centre-left Labour Party, which won a general election last month, said in its campaign manifesto it planned to introduce some of the world's strictest anti-smoking rules by banning younger people from smoking.

The previous Conservative government had announced similar measures but the plan failed to become law before the election was called.

Britain banned smoking in almost all enclosed public spaces, including bars and workplaces, in 2007. Cancer Research UK said this led to an estimated 1.9 million fewer smokers, and research in the British Medical Journal estimated there were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks in the year following.

Britain's hospitality industry warned a stricter smoking ban could force some businesses to close.

"A ban on smoking in outdoor spaces comes with the prospect of serious economic harm to hospitality venues," said Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of trade body UKHospitality.

"This ban would not only affect pubs and nightclubs, but hotels, cafes and restaurants."

About 6.4 million people in Britain were smokers in 2022, the Office for National Statistics has estimated, around 13% of the adult population.

That is much lower than other European countries such as Italy, Germany and France, where between 18%-23% of adults smoke, according to OECD figures.

The government estimates smoking costs Britain's health services 17 billion pounds ($22.37 billion) a year and there is strong support for greater restrictions on smokers from medical and healthcare experts.

($1 = 0.7598 pounds)

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Alex Richardson)