Burnham in diplomatic row with Cuba over cigar ban

Andy Burnham is embroiled in a diplomatic row with Cuba over Britain’s looming ban on cigars, The Telegraph can reveal.

Leaked diplomatic correspondence shows the ambassadors of the Republic of Cuba, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have been writing to the Government since 2024 with concerns about plans for a “smoke-free Britain”.

They have said the incoming generational smoking ban enacted by Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, will “disproportionately impact cigar-producing countries” and would amount to an “unjustified barrier to trade”.

But repeated attempts to seek a carve-out for cigars, which the Caribbean nations claim “neither contribute to youth smoking initiation nor share the same public health profile as cigarettes”, have come to an apparent impasse.

Diplomatic staff are understood to have become increasingly frustrated following an apparent breakdown in communications and, in particular, that a junior health minister had responded to a letter addressed to Sir Keir Starmer at the end of last year.

A source familiar with the row, which has now been inherited by Mr Burnham, said there had been no response to the latest letters of concern since the middle of February.

“It is highly unusual for a prime minister to delegate the response of a letter to a government department, and this was met with consternation by the embassies who consider themselves trading partners and friends of the UK,” they said.