Jack McConnell on 20th anniversary of Scotland's public place smoking ban

Thursday marks 20 years since Scotland’s indoor smoking ban was brought in under Jack McConnell’s Scottish Labour government.

In that time, smoking rates have plummeted by almost half while health conditions exacerbated by smoking – like strokes and asthma attacks – have come down. But the former Labour first minister wasn’t always a devotee of the policy.

“I was originally a sceptic,” he admits to STV News. Now, however, he reflects on the day it was introduced: “It was the day, really, that Holyrood grew up.”

His government launched a consultation into whether a ban on smoking inside public places should be implemented in 2003. When this began, Lord McConnell – who was elevated to the House of Lords three years after his premiership ended – was opposed on the basis that banning smokers from pubs was “a step too far on civil liberties”.

McConnell says there was some resistance at first to the ban STV News

Indeed the Labour government in Westminster under Tony Blair had been committed to reducing smoking by voluntary means rather than using legislation – but simply issuing guidance wasn’t yielding results.

“I was absolutely persuaded during the consultation,” McConnell says, noting that young people in particular were in favour of the government taking action.

But a pretty big group of people took umbrage at the suggestion of a smoking ban.

“The campaign against [it] was pretty brutal,” McConnell concedes. “I remember large signs, very personal about me, a very well-financed campaign financed by the tobacco companies.”

Rather than let this get under his skin, McConnell and his allies became determined instead to produce “water-tight” legislation: “We had to make sure that people understood that this was something in their interest, not in the politicians’ interest, but in their interest.”

Thursday marks 20 years since the smoking ban came into effect STV News

Pubs had an extra hour to host their “last fag parties”, as McConnell calls them, before the ban commenced, as his government had deliberately chosen the night the clocks went back. And despite all the anti-ban campaigns, the policy began to work.

“Overnight, Scotland just changed. People accepted it, they welcomed it,” McConnell said, with a shrug of pleasant incredulity.

“I think it was a real turning point for the parliament. Here was a piece of legislation that half the population had been against, just two years before, yet people had accepted the authority of a Scottish parliament with a Scottish solution to a long-standing Scottish problem.”

But in reflecting back on a pivotal piece of legislation, McConnell is forced to consider the significance of Holyrood legislation passed in more recent years.

“I think there’s a lot of frustration around the country that the parliament has run out of steam, or is not being brave enough to take on really big challenges. Big changes that can make a difference in Scotland are badly needed.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming May election, he says the way that the smoking ban became successful should be used as an example for those joining the new parliament to be “ambitious and have big ideas”, rather than the “low-key parliament” he believes has been operating in recent years.

McConnell wants politicians to put forward ideas that will “radically transform” Scotland’s public services.