Vaping remains the most effective tool to help smokers quit, so why is Labour trying to restrict access to vape shops, asks Andrej Kuttruf

Ahead of this week’s Labour Party conference, the government announced that local councils may soon gain powers to limit the number of vaping retailers on local high streets via its “Pride in Place” initiative. Although this might sound like sensible public health policy, it is actually a glaring contradiction at the very heart of the government’s approach to smoking cessation.

On the one hand, NHS guidance is unequivocal: vaping remains the most effective tool to help smokers quit and is estimated to be 95 per cent less harmful than smoking. This has been the position of Public Health England for years, reinforced by numerous independent studies. On the other hand, restricting access to vape shops, which are often located in precisely those........

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