Keir Starmer told the nation this week that we should expect things to get worse in the early days of his reign. True to his word, he’s announced that he intends to stub out one of life’s great pleasures and lay further waste to the pub trade while he’s at it. Not only is the country going to pot, soon you won’t even be able to escape it all with a pint and a cigarette in a sunny pub garden.

Naturally, Starmer has decided that the insanely illiberal ‘generational smoking ban’ he has inherited from the Tories doesn’t go far enough. Alongside banning young people from ever being able to smoke, as part of a revived Tobacco and Vapes Bill, Labour intends to turn the screws on existing smokers as well, by banning them from smoking in pub gardens, outside nightclubs, on restaurant terraces and outside football matches.

The government is trying to maintain the pretence that this is about saving people from second-hand smoke. But given an outdoor cigarette is only really dangerous to those around you if you are all standing in a puddle of petrol, it isn’t very convincing. A spokesperson for the Department of Health has already given the game away, telling the Sun: ‘We’re considering a range of measures to finally make Britain smoke-free.’