Member

All I am asking the Minister and the Government to consider is a proper fact-based assessment of the difference between cigars and other tobacco products. Only then will we have legitimacy for banning their sale, which, by the way—as we should be aware—will cost many thousands of jobs and destroy an important community of people whose mental health should be a priority. It will end the fabulous tourist attraction of our specialist tobacco and cigar shops and, importantly, reduce my freedom and happiness—ambitions no Government and this House should meet without proper evidence. It is wrong to interfere in someone’s life without good cause. All I ask is that we gather the evidence, publish it, assess it and, if it shows that cigars are not the enemies we think they are, remove them from the proscribed list. That is why I speak to my amendments.