A new survey has revealed a rather gloomy attitude to Labour, with policies like the smoking ban driving further support for Nigel Farage and his Reform party.
The upcoming ban on disposable vapes and smoking for those born after 2008 is pinned as a key driver of this resentment, with Sir Keir’s government being accused of interfering too much in the lives of Britons. The poll, commissioned by the Adam Smith Institute think tank, suggests Labour’s nanny-state attitude is also fuelling defections to Reform.
One in five 2024 Labour voters say they have become more likely to vote for Reform at the next election, pegging Nigel Farage as more “fun”, who “tells it how it is”, and who better “understands working people”. 44% of Britons said the government has too much say over personal freedoms, while a majority agreed that Labour “loves to ban things that people enjoy”. By contrast, Reform UK is perceived as the most fun party.
Maxwell Marlow, Director of Public Affairs at the Adam Smith Institute, said: “The British public clearly thinks that the government is trying to regulate the fun out of their lives- whether it’s by banning cigarettes and disposable vapes or not supporting our pubs.”
“And yet at the same time by attacking, taxing and over-regulating quitting aids like vapes, the government is undermining its own health goals by effectively telling people that they are just as bad for you as cigarettes.
“Voters don’t think that any of this is a priority- and they rightfully want the government to focus on the things that really matter to them. Rather than acting like the anti-fun police, the government should fully concentrate on what they have repeatedly said is their number one mission: growth.”
Tum Lubbock, Co-Founder of JL Partners, said: « With an NHS in crisis and Europe going through a reckoning on its own defence, what we heard from voters on the tobacco and vapes bill was ‘why are you doing this?’ This legislation was almost at the bottom of the list of priorities voters have.”
“What would really give me pause as a government minister is the 55% of the public who said that the government is is banning things like vapes because that’s easier than tackling the difficult problems facing the country rather than because it is the right thing to do – numbers that are exactly the same for the key group of voters who are considering switching from Labour to Reform.
“This really feeds into a sense that is on display in this polling which is that a large majority of the public – 6 in 10 – think the government is attacking working people, the literal opposite impression from the one the Keir Starmer project has been built on. If you leave voters with that impression then they will, as we have seen and as this polling shows, find other parties to support.
“Keir Starmer is in a race for popularity with Nigel Farage and at the moment this data shows that Nigel Farage is the preferred choice for Prime Minister in more than half of constituencies vs the Prime Minister. That extends to 1 in 10 of those who actually voted Labour last year who now say that Nigel Farage would be a better PM than the man who actually holds that office – Keir Starmer.”
The new smoking ban was set in motion by the previous Tory government under Rishi Sunak, but failed to pass into law before the general election.
The ban on disposable vapes will enter into force in June this year, while the lifetime smoking ban for those currently under the age of 15 kicks in from 2027.
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