Shops selling vapes must be licensed like alcohol outlets to stem the epidemic of child nicotine addiction, MPs will demand this week.
It comes as research shows that more than three quarters of the public support toughening the law so the devices can’t be sold at toy shops, sweet stores and other places aimed at youngsters.
Even the tobacco industry, which makes much of its profit from vapes, supports stricter regulation to reframe them as legitimate stop-smoking aids rather than public nuisances.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be debated in the Commons tomorrow, when a group of MPs will call for tighter restrictions on the brightly coloured, candy-flavoured nicotine gadgets.
They are sold in many sweet shops and, in one extraordinary example, a shop in Lincolnshire called Grimsby Toys & Vape where they are sold alongside teddy bears.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be debated in the Commons tomorrow, when a group of MPs will call for tighter restrictions on the brightly coloured, candy-flavoured nicotine gadgets. (Stock Image)
Tory MP Caroline Johnson, a paediatric consultant, said: ‘People are very worried about the number of children getting addicted to vapes. It currently far exceeds the number that would have started smoking.
Churchill dragged into smoking row
Winston Churchill would have backed Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban, the Health Secretary said yesterday, as she insisted the policy was ‘very Conservative’.
Victoria Atkins played down the prospect of a Tory rebellion over the plans, saying the wartime prime minister and famous cigar lover, pictured, would approve.
The legislation would effectively ban anyone now aged 14 or younger from ever buying tobacco, with the legal age at which people can buy cigarettes rising annually.
It will be debated in the Commons tomorrow. Ms Atkins told the BBC: ‘We just want to stop our children from buying them.’
But Lord Soames, Sir Winston’s grandson, said his ancestor ‘certainly wouldn’t have approved’ of the ban.
Pictured: Sir Winston Churchill
‘The market for selling vapes and other nicotine products needs to be tightened. If people needed a licence to sell vapes, it would make it easier to enforce the law, because they could immediately lose their licence if they sold them to children.’
She said alcohol and tobacco licences should be ‘tied together’, so if a shop lost its licence for selling one type of product to children, it would lose its licence to sell both – which could be catastrophic for a small business.
‘I would also like to see a restriction on vaping in public places, to match smoking,’ she added.
‘People may say it’s ‘nanny state’, but most people don’t want to live in a candy floss and blueberry-scented fog.’
In a nationwide poll, the Britain in Focus think-tank found that most people are concerned by the number of youngsters puffing on vapes, and shocked that shops do not need a licence to sell them.
Seven in ten believe the Government has not done enough to tackle under-age vaping, and 79 per cent believe the new smoking legislation should introduce licences for selling vapes.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill seeks to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes and stop candy-flavoured vapes from being marketed to children.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins rejected accusations that it was an example of ‘nanny state’ legislation. She said: ‘This is about the Conservative principle of looking after future generations.
‘We want to free future generations from addiction to nicotine. No one is glad they started smoking; everyone regrets it.’
The number of children using vapes has tripled in the past three years, according to the Department of Health.
Source: Mail Online
