Vital Signs: Respiratory (asthma/COPD)

Briefing · Parliament

MPs link smoking to COPD and asthma in the Smoke-free UK debate; other respiratory mentions are brief

1. 01In the Smoke-free UK debate, Euan Stainbank (Labour) named COPD among the preventable smoking illnesses affecting his constituents. He said he wholeheartedly supports the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 generational ban, but argued that tools which help people quit should not be regulated out of existence prematurely.
2. 02Dame Diana Johnson (Labour) and Ruth Jones (Labour) set out the health case in the same debate. Johnson listed asthma among the conditions smoking contributes to and cited around 75,000 deaths a year and a £3 billion annual cost to the NHS and social care. Jones, a physiotherapist, said she had seen smoking initiate and exacerbate asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease, and cited an estimated 80,000 deaths a year.
3. 03Gregory Stafford (Conservative) said he served on the Bill Committee and recalled cross-party consensus for most of the Bill. He argued that the law alone does not cut smoking rates and said what happens next is what counts. He began his five points to the Minister with the target, citing ONS figures of 9.8% of adults, about 4.9 million people, smoking in 2025.
4. 04In Summer Health and Resilience, Yvette Cooper (Labour) said the Government is looking at how to give rapid advice to people with asthma or other conditions that wildfire smoke might worsen. She said the chief medical officer had attended a Prime Minister-chaired meeting on the summer wildfires.
5. 05Respiratory conditions came up more briefly elsewhere. Sir Stephen Timms (Labour) described the 1979 Act compensation scheme, which covers pneumoconiosis, diffuse mesothelioma and three other dust-related respiratory diseases. Sojan Joseph (Labour) said the BCG vaccine does not reliably protect adults against pulmonary TB and called for more research. Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat) listed asthma among the risks that breastfeeding reduces.