Vape firms warned Labour will ‘come down like tonne of bricks’
A Labour government will “come down like a tonne of bricks” on vaping firms marketing products to children under 18, Wes Streeting has said.
The shadow health secretary accused the vape industry of seeking to “addict a generation” and suggested appealing flavours like “rainbow burst” were designed to attract kids.
Delivering his speech at Labour conference in Liverpool, Streeting said he wanted children born in Britain today to be part of the healthiest generation that has ever lived.
He outlined a string of measures to boost childhood health, from banning junk food ads targeted at kids, to introducing primary school breakfast clubs and supervised toothbrushing.
Streeting added: “And to those in the vaping industry, who have sought to addict a generation of children to nicotine with flavours like rainbow burst and cotton candy ice, you have been warned – a Labour government will come down on you like a tonne of bricks.”
Commenting earlier in the conference, in an interview with Guardian editor Katherine Viner, the Ilford North MP pledged: “[Labour] will ban the marketing, promotion and the sale of vapes to children and if this government doesn’t pull its finger out and get on with it ahead of the general election we will come down on the vaping industry like a tonne of bricks.
“The vaping industry, which presented itself as the angel of stop smoking services with this lovely new gadget that you can breathe in that’s much less harmful, they thought they were doing us a favour.”
He added: “To an extent they were until they started marketing their vapes in brightly coloured packaging … and in doing so they addicted a generation of children to nicotine.
“We will not forgive or forget because what I hear from teachers … [is that] they are having to lock toilets in schools because kids are going off and vaping.”
It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced in his speech at Tory conference last week that his government would seek to raise the legal smoking age by a year every year.
In response to this, Streeting said Labour would “vote through the ban on selling cigarettes to kids, so that young people are even less likely to smoke than they are to vote Tory”.
Reem Ibrahim, from free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “This is deeply worrying. Vaping products are more than 95 per cent less harmful than cigarettes, and have allowed millions of adults in the UK to quit.
And Robert Colville, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, commented: “I really don’t understand why people are suddenly claiming vaping is the enemy.
“Yes, we don’t want kids taking it up. But it is the best tool we have to stop people smoking, which is the worst thing they could be doing.”
In an email to Conservative supporters following Streeting’s speech, party chairman Greg Hands wrote: “We’re introducing the first-ever long-term NHS workforce plan — and raising the smoking age year by year to create a smoke-free generation.”