I thought I would do something novel and see what the laws and legislation, if any, were actually being pushed in the U.K. to meet this ambitious goal for 2030.
Basically, this is very old news. This whole thing started in 2017 when the UK government through the Dept. of Health and Social Care published its report on a "Tobacco Control Plan for England." It's roughly 32 pages and is a brief read, but the tl;dr version: they want people to smoke less, especially the pregnant and those with mental health issues. To achieve this, they are advocating for maintaining high taxes on tobacco, better cessation support for smokers (and the focus is on cigarette smokers; again, folks, no one CARES about pipe smokers in these things because they are not a big enough group to focus on), and increasing public education on the dangers of tobacco.
In other words, they are going to do the same shit they have been doing since the Thatcher administration. Anti-smoking lobbying groups are pushing the UK government to do more, because their legislature, in their opinion at least, has not taken the DHS report seriously enough, and it is believed they will miss their smoke-free goals by at least seven years if current trends continue. In other words, the government keeps publishing reports about what they are going to do and then don't do it. Yes, I know, I am utterly shocked too.
So, not quite 1984 or a Chinese psy-op. Taxes will remain high, but so far, it seems Boris Johnson isn't going to kick down doors and confiscate everyone's fags.