UK to ban disposable vapes as Rishi Sunak warns of ‘endemic’ impact on youth

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Disposable vapes are to be banned in the UK as part of a drive to protect children’s health, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned that youth vaping could become “endemic”.

Sunak will on Monday also announce new powers to restrict vape flavours and require plain packaging as part of an attempt to make sure the products do not appeal to children.

Although many Conservative MPs are instinctively opposed to bans, viewing them as tools of a “nanny state”, Sunak said he had “an obligation to do what I think is right for the country in the long term”.

“As any parent or teacher knows, one of the most worrying trends at the moment is the rise in vaping among children and so we must act before it becomes endemic,” he said.

“The long-term impacts of vaping are unknown and the nicotine within them can be highly addictive, so while vaping can be a useful tool to help smokers quit, marketing vapes to children is not acceptable,” Sunak added.

He is also bringing forward legislation — announced at last year’s Conservative party conference — to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after January 1 2009, in an effort to create a “smoke-free generation”.

Former Tory prime minister Liz Truss criticised the tobacco legislation and said it would “create an absurd situation where adults enjoy different rights based on their birth date”.

“A Conservative government should not be seeking to extend the nanny state,” she added.

The vaping measures are expected to win support from the Labour party, which has also said it backs Sunak’s smoking crackdown.

Vape manufacturers said they were “dismayed” by the prime minister’s plan to ban disposable vapes, which they said helped to reduce UK smoking rates.

In the year to the end of July, £1.3bn worth of disposable e-cigarettes were sold in Britain, according to NielsenIQ…