Mr Sunak said: “I propose that in future we raise the smoking age by one year every year.
“That means a 14-year-old today will never legally be sold a cigarette and that they and their generation can grow up smoke free.”
Smoking will not be criminalised and the phased approach means anyone who is old enough to buy cigarettes now will not be prevented from doing so.
However, the proposed rule change, following New Zealand with some of the strictest smoking laws in the world, sparked a fair backlash amongst fellow Tories.
Writing a column for Mail Plus, Boris Johnson questioned: “Child A will be free to smoke like a chimney to the end of his days. Child B — born only a day later! — will be a criminal if he does.
“How the hell is that supposed to work?”
The 59-year-old former Tory MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip questioned whether fines would be imposed to those born after January 1, 2009 caught smoking.
He continued: “Yes, folks, if this plan is to make any sense at all, it must logically mean that we are willing to send repeated and incorrigible scofflaws to prison — for smoking!”
