Whether it's for economic gain or for political gain, yes. The UK government is pushing through aggressive legislation to try and get people away from smoking,

Whether it's for economic gain or for political gain, yes. The UK government is pushing through aggressive legislation to try and get people away from smoking, e.g. the recent ban on branded packaging, smoking in a car with kids is illegal, etc. See my reference [1]. You can make the economic argument either way, however there is one thing that's almost certain: revenue from smokers is at an upper bound now. Increasing the cost of cigarettes is probably not going to improve tax revenue. On the pro side for smoking, aside from taxation on cigarettes, manufacture of tobacco products pays salaries which gets fed back into the economy. It's also possible that healthy people actually cost the health service more because instead of dropping dead of emphysema, people live longer and rack up more routine costs over time.