Professor Lisa McNally

The research shows clearly that it's more effective to quit smoking using vapes than with nicotine gum or patches.

And for, you know, smoking is really addictive.

So, you know, for some people, that's what it takes.

To be honest with you, I mean, following the debate in Parliament, it's had pretty much cross-party support.

Don't forget, this was originally the idea of the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak, but then there was the election.

But the first thing Labour did when they came into power was start it up again.

We have had objections, of course, as you would expect from the tobacco industry.

But, you know, we're used to that.

We're used to that in public health.

And

we've been able to pretty much deal with those objections.

Yeah, exactly.

So the tobacco industry will tell us that we should defend the freedom to smoke.

But if you've ever seen someone with a smoking related illness, as I have in my family, there's not a lot of freedom to do with it.

You know, it's so many people are desperate to quit smoking.

And the other thing is what we're trying to do is prevent the tobacco industry from finding their new customer base.

So what this law does, it doesn't penalise existing smokers.

It makes it more difficult for younger people to start.

And that's obviously not a good thing for the tobacco companies because they need those new customers.

You make a good point, Kieran, because a lot of people do start before they're 18.