More from Parliament
So, the Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care hasn’t had the best start to the year in the House of Commons – let’s see if she and her colleagues at DEFRA and the Exchequer can step up a gear
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by Dave Cross
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Andrew Lewer, Northampton South’s Tory, asked the Department for Health and Social Care
If an assessment will be made of the potential impact of limiting vape flavours to tobacco-flavoured.
Andrea Leadsom replied: “Due to nicotine content and the unknown long-term harms, vaping carries risks to health and lifelong addiction for children. The health advice is clear that young people and people who have never smoked should not vape.”
Nope, Andrea, that isn’t answering the question.
“This is why the Government consulted on measures to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children. These measures will need to balance having the biggest impact on youth vaping with ensuring vapes continue to support adult smokers to quit,” she concluded.
Do you think she thinks she answered the question?
Labour’s Rachael Maskell was next to try, asking if the Department will assess the level of nicotine addiction in children due to vapes.
Oh boy, now Andrea Leadsom can go full Leadsom by regurgitating the Bloomberg briefing she has willingly swallowed: “The number of children vaping has tripled in the last three years. Due to highly addictive nicotine content and the unknown long-term harms, vaping carries risk of harm and addiction for children. We will continue to monitor the risks associated with vaping for children and adults, including the risks of nicotine addiction.
“This is why on 4 October 2023, the Prime Minister announced that we will be cracking down on youth vaping, by consulting on measures to reduce the appeal, availability and affordability of vapes to children.”
OK, not quite a complete response, but certainly one that indicates the new anti-vape agenda at play since Andrea (I signed a Bill to ban disposables) Leadsom took office.
Mary Glindon asked about Department plans to mitigate the potential impact of the proposals in that consultation on adults using vapes as a smoking cessation tool.
Andrea Leadsom either doesn’t like Glindon or doesn’t care to consider the damaging impact of banning popular quit smoking tools or dumping popular e-liquid flavours. She repeated her answer to Rachael Maskell – which not only failed to respond to Glindon for the third time this week but made absolutely no sense.
Opposition Whip Christian Wakeford asked a question about youth vaping. Leadsom completely failed to answer that too.
Tory Ranil Jayawardena asked a succinct question about whether Leadsom intended to “restrict the future availability of Snus and vapes”.
It’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, Andrea. You can do it – just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Voiceover: She didn’t answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In fact, her long waffle contained no answer.
It’s not worth bothering with Preet Kaur Gill’s question about nicotine concentration listed on packaging. Just make your own answer up. Be as fantastical as you can, it doesn’t matter, it will still touch on government plans closer to anything Leadsom said.
Charlotte Nichols MP asked DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) wondered if people were being encouraged to use refillables rather than disposables.
DEFRA Under-Secretary Robbie Moore replied: “On 12 October 2023 the Government…”
Oh dear, Robbie appears to have caught a bad case of the Leadsoms. No answer given.
Preet Kaur Gill asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if track and trace will be introduced for vaping products.
Gareth Davies, The Exchequer Secretary, gave an answer – seriously, he actually answered the question. I know, right, I can’t believe it either. It’s ‘No’.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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