British House of Commons passes bill to ban young people from smoking

With 383 votes in favor and 67 votes against, the British House of Commons on April 16 passed a bill to prevent young people from smoking.

This is considered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's top policy in an effort to attract voters ahead of next year's general election.

Once passed, the new law will ban the sale of cigarettes to people born after January 1, 2009, and will raise the smoking age by one year each year until it applies to the entire population. This is considered one of the strictest tobacco ban plans in the world today.

Some British MPs have expressed concern that the new law risks creating a black market and causing unmanageable challenges.

According to official statistics, about 6.4 million people in the UK, equivalent to 13% of the country's adult population, smoke.

Smoking is responsible for a quarter of all cancer deaths, with 64,000 deaths a year in the UK.