Rishi Sunak’s plan to introduce a phased ban on smoking risks making it “cooler”, a former Cabinet minister has warned. 

Sir Simon Clarke argued the ban could fuel a black market and create an “unmanageable challenge for the authorities” to enforce it. 

The former levelling up secretary made the comments as MPs prepare to debate and vote on Mr Sunak’s plan for the first time later today. 

Mr Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill will make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after Jan 1 2009. 

Asked if he was sceptical of the ban or downright opposed to it, Sir Simon told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Both sceptical and downright opposed, I think it’s fair to say, because the truth is that we all agree that smoking is a very bad thing and that no young person ought to start. 

“That is something which I think the science is unequivocal on, anyone who has spent any time talking, as I have, to doctors in the NHS about this will be in no doubt of the social and economic and health consequences of smoking. 

“But there are good ways to tackle a problem like this and then there are bad ways and I think that an outright ban risks being counterproductive, I think it actually risks making smoking cooler, it certainly risks creating a black market, and it also risks creating an unmanageable challenge for the authorities.”