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Keir Starmer's plan for a nationwide ban on smoking cannot be implemented in Northern Ireland without breaching the UK's post-Brexit deal with the EU, the country's former legal chief has warned. John Larkin KC said the Tobacco and Vapes Bill currently going through Parliament will be 'run aground' by the Windsor Framework agreed by Rishi Sunak in 2023. The framework governs post-Brexit trading arrangements and means Northern Ireland continues to follow many EU trade and customs rules to ensure no hardening of the land border with Ireland. Last week Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn told MPs it was 'the Government's intention' that the ban would apply in Ulster as it would anywhere else. But legal advice produced by Mr Larkin for the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, seen by the Mail, says doing so would breach a 2014 EU directive prohibiting member states - and rule-taking Northern Ireland - from making tobacco illegal. Mr Larkin said that the framework was 'an insuperable obstacle to the effective enactment' of the part of the smoking ban that applies it to Northern Ireland as well as England, Scotland and Wales. 'Parliament is simply not free to legislate effectively in those policy areas in which EU law still prevails through the Windsor Framework in Northern Ireland,' he wrote. 'The Bill serves almost as a textbook example of how a measure advanced by a Government commanding a large majority in the House of Commons can run aground, as respects its Northern Ireland component, on provisions contained in the Windsor Framework.' The Bill is UK-wide legislation which would create a 'smoke-free generation' by banning tobacco products for anyone born after January 1, 2009. It would also bring in restrictions on the advertising and sale of vapes, as well as reviewing the packaging of e-cigarettes. The legislation has passed votes in the House of Commons and is currently going through the House of Lords. Mr Benn and other ministers have repeatedly told MPs the ban will apply to Northern Ireland. Last week he dismissed a claim by Tory MP Mike Wood that the ban was 'potentially in breach of the EU's tobacco products directive. 'It is certainly the Government's intention that the ban will apply in Northern Ireland, because it is very important that young people all over the United Kingdom are protected in the way in which the Bill seeks,' the minister told the Commons.
