UK doctors seek permanent ban on selling cigarettes to those born after 2000

Doctors have voted overwhelmingly to push for a permanent ban on the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2000

The motion passed at the British Medical Association's annual representatives' meeting on Tuesday means that the doctors' union will lobby the government to introduce the ban, in the same way it successfully pushed for a ban on lighting up in public places and on smoking in cars carrying children, after votes in 2002 and 2011.

"It is not expected that this policy will instantly prevent all people from smoking, but [rather it will] de-normalise cigarette smoking,” said London research assistant in academic public health, Dr Tim Crocker-Buqué at the meeting. “The level of harm caused by smoking is unconscionable.”

Opponents said a ban would demonise the working classes and lead to a black market in the trade of cigarettes that would be potentially more dangerous than their legal equivalent.

Ahead of the vote, the proposal was condemned by the smokers' group Forest and the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, who both said that existing laws stopping children smoking should be enforced.