Smoking ban: Hospitality and health leaders clash on outdoor smoking plan

Those in the hospitality sector worry the ban will further hurt businesses.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), which represents 20,000 pubs in the UK, said pub numbers had significantly decreased because of factors including the Covid pandemic and energy crisis.

“This needs to be thought through very carefully before we damage businesses and economic growth and jobs,” Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade group UK Hospitality, told the Today programme.

Chief executive of Revolution Bars, Rob Pitchers, said he was not convinced smoking in beer gardens was “prevalent enough to be putting any strain at all on the NHS”.

But JD Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin said: “I don’t think it will have a big effect on our business, one way or another.”

Smaller pub owners share a different tale.

Pub landlady Lisa Burrage, 55, in Newland, Gloucestershire, said pubs should be able to choose whether or not to go smoke-free and “it is not up to the government to make that decision”.

“This will be just another hurdle we have to face in hospitality and one we can do without,” Ms Burrage told the BBC.

Tony Harding, 57, a publican in Salisbury, said residents who live near his pub would probably not be happy if his punters began smoking and “blocking the pathway in the street, instead of [using] my nice comfortable garden”.

These concerns are echoed by opposition politicians.

Conservative leadership candidate Priti Patel said the proposals amounted to “nanny state regulation” that would be “economically damaging”.

Another Tory leadership candidate, Robert Jenrick, said: “The last thing this country needs is thousands more pubs closing.”

While Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the proposals as “government overreach on a scale that is utterly ridiculous”.

“Frankly, if they do this, it will be the death knell of the pub,” Mr Farage added.