Sunak ‘disappointed’ smoking bill won’t become law before General Election

Rishi Sunak has said he is ‘disappointed’ that his flagship smoking bill will not pass before parliament shuts down ahead of the 2024 General Election.

The proposed law would have prevented Brits born in or after 2009 from ever being able to legally buy cigarettes – but now its future is in doubt.

There are a little under six weeks to go until the country goes to the polls for the first time since 2019.

Most polls suggest Labour will sweep to power – but the fight may be feistier than usual in Islington North, where Jeremy Corbyn has decided to run for the seat he’s held since 1983.

The ex-Labour leader was booted out of the party by his successor Keir Starmer in a row over the extent of antisemitism among members.

Now he has said he will go head-to-head with his former party in an independent run for his north London constituency.

Sunak and Starmer will face off against each other alongside other party leaders at debates later in the campaign – but they probably won’t be weekly, as the PM has suggested.

Responding to Sunak’s offer for a TV debate every week, Starmer said he would rather speak to voters as ‘the arguments are going to be exactly the same because we do them every Wednesday at Prime Minister’s Questions’.