Up to 64,000 deaths each year in the UK are linked to smoking (Picture: PA)

New Zealand’s newly installed government has controversially scrapped a smoking ban that the UK is set to copy.

The legislation, brought in under the previous Jacinda Ardern-led authority, was designed to fund tax cuts as well as reduce the leading cause of preventable deaths in the country.

The new laws would have seen anyone born after 2008 stopped from legally buying tobacco – similar to what British PM Rishi Sunak is doing here in the UK.

But new Kiwi prime minister Chris Luxon, along with some lawmakers, believe a blanket ban on selling tobacco to a younger generation will lead to a lucrative black market for smoking products.

Many health experts are furious that New Zealand is now backtracking on what was seen as a leading policy worldwide on the fight against smoking-related illnesses and deaths.

The mention of the ‘Smokefree’ laws have been absent from any government policy during election campaigns and new finance minister Nicola Willis said on Saturday the government would repeal the legislation.

New Zealand’s new prime minister Christopher Luxon being sworn in (Picture: AFP)

Professor Richard Edwards, a tobacco control researcher and public health expert at the University of Otago, told the BBC: ‘We are appalled and disgusted… this is an incredibly retrograde step on world-leading, absolutely excellent health measures.

‘Most health groups in New Zealand are appalled by what the government’s done and are calling on them to backtrack.’

Anti-smoking group Health Coalition Aotearoa – the Maori name for New Zealand – said the policy u-turn was a major blow to the country, according to AFP.

‘This is a major loss for public health, and a huge win for the tobacco industry, whose profits will be boosted at the expense of Kiwi lives,’ the group said in a statement.

Many health experts are furious that New Zealand is now backtracking on what was seen as a leading policy worldwide (Picture: Getty)

Statistics from New Zealand in 2022 showed that 8% of adults smoked daily, down from 16% 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, 8.3% of adults vaped daily, up from fewer than 1% six years ago.

Smoking rates remain higher among Indigenous Maori, with about 20% of people saying that they smoke.

This compares to some 13.3% of people aged 18 and over in the UK who said they smoked cigarettes in 2021.

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Meanwhile, in the UK Mr Sunak plans to go ahead with laws that will see the age at which you can buy tobacco products go up every year.

The new laws, unveiled at the Conservative Party conference, would mean a 14-year-old will ‘never legally be sold a cigarette’ as the smoking age limit is gradually increased from 18.

The PM said this would help ease pressure on the NHS with an estimated 64,000 deaths each year linked to smoking in the UK.

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The legislation was designed to fund tax cuts as well as reduce the leading cause of preventable deaths in the country.