King’s speech: Health leaders laud commitments on public and mental health as “game changing”

NHS and public health leaders have welcomed potentially “game changing” commitments in the king’s speech of the new Labour government to improve the nation’s health, including reforms to the Mental Health Act and a law to create a smokefree generation.1

King Charles announced on 17 July that Labour will bring in a bill to “progressively increase the age at which people can buy cigarettes and impose limits on the sale and marketing of vapes.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is picking up proposals by his defeated Tory predecessor Rishi Sunak—which some health campaigners feared might be dropped—to raise the age of sale for tobacco by one year every year and tighten restrictions on the sale of vapes to children and young people.

Greg Fell, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said, “This bill has the …