Part of Tobacco and Vapes Bill - Report (1st Day) (Continued) – in the House of Lords at 9:30 pm on 24 February 2026.
Baroness Northover
Liberal Democrat
9:30,
24 February 2026
My Lords, my noble friend Lady Walmsley signed Amendment 126, to which the noble Earl, Lord Lindsay, referred. It seeks, above all, to ensure that all small retailers are treated fairly. I am sure the Minister will be addressing this.
Moving on to cigars and cigar lounges generally, I do not see why these should be exempt. In Committee, we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Ramsey, about a new cigar lounge in Sheffield which has opened near a school. A public health team at the council made representations saying that it had serious concerns about the impact of the lounge, particularly in an area where smoking causes great health inequalities, but it was powerless to stop this. As we have just heard, having staff working indoors in these lounges seems to go against the very intention of the original smoke-free legislation, which was to protect staff from the harmful impact of second-hand smoke.
We have been talking quite a bit about loopholes, and I am struck by what the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, said about the age range of those now taking up cigars and the malign influence of Andrew Tate and similar influencers. I spotted young men in the US, Canada and the UK smoking cigars, and I can now trace it. I was puzzled, but I now see why it has been taken up. This points clearly to the necessity to close this loophole, as I hope the Government will. We know that, where there are loopholes, they are exploited, and the exemption of cigars has proved that.
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