It is safe to say we’re at a point in time where the British public understands the harms of smoking and we’ve heard successive Governments bang the drum for a smoke-free Britain by 2030. But far from building on this, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill may well undermine any progress we’ve made so far.

Smoking is naturally in decline. In Britain, prevalence rates have come down to 11.6%. It’s no coincidence that this has coincided with the advent of vapes and other smokefree alternatives. In fact, Action on Smoking Health shows that around three million smokers have quit as a result of vapes and the NHS actually promotes vapes through the Swap to Stop scheme. That is an incredible vindication of the free market and we should be encouraging the remaining six million smokers to make this switch.

Instead, Labour’s band of babysitters seem hell-bent on ruining the reputation of smoke-free products and sliding down the slippery slope of state intervention. Next week, this puritan piece of legislation- the Tobacco and Vapes Bill- will go before MPs for the final time.

It proposes draconian restrictions on vapes and other nicotine products- banning all forms of advertising and cutting flavour options to name a few. But treating vapes like cigarettes erases a crucial distinction – the former has been key to reducing smoking rates.

In the impact assessment of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the Government recognised that their proposals to ban all advertising would likely reduce the number of people getting off smoking. There are no details, just one simple bullet point acknowledging the “Health impacts of fewer people using vapes and nicotine products to quit smoking”.

I recently pushed the Department for Health to explain what impact assessment they had made on how the ban on advertising would impact adult smokers switching to these less harmful products. The latest Public Health Minister, Ashley Dalton, stonewalled in her response saying that they had undertaken a “thorough impact assessment” as part of this Bill.

I re-read the assessment- other than writing this particular concern off as a “non-monetized cost”, I could not find any other evidence in this “thorough assessment” relating to the potential negative impacts of the marketing ban.

There are two possible reasons for this: either the Government has not made an impact assessment of this particular area of the Bill, or they are hiding their results.

They have focused instead on the marketing of vapes towards children and this I completely support. However, why not also review the appeal of these products to the very people they are meant for: adult smokers?

Instead of grasping the nettle and coming up with effective regulations for the marketing of nicotine products, they have opted for an all-out ban. This is lazy lawmaking. Perhaps even more concerning is the government’s continued flirtation with banning flavoured vapes, despite its own impact assessment showing that nearly a third of vapers would actually return to smoking if flavours were restricted. In Quebec, a ban on flavoured vapes led 36% of users back to cigarettes within a year.

In Britain we already have regulations in place for high fat salt sugar foods, alcohol, and gambling, all of which spell out an approach to ensure that these products do not appeal to children- perhaps this could be a starting point for tobacco-free products too. The Government’s current approach isn’t cautious, it’s reckless. And it’s smokers trying to quit who will bear the cost, both to their health and in their back pockets.

By blurring the line between cigarettes and vapes, this Bill will make the safer option less appealing, less accessible, and less effective for those looking to quit. It risks reversing hard-won progress and turning success into failure.

A blanket ban is not the answer. That is why I am convinced the marketing provisions in this Bill must be amended. We should instead adopt common-sense restrictions such as limiting adverts to pubs, clubs and bars, or ensuring any adverts clearly communicate that nicotine products are only intended for adult smokers. We could even take the Chief Medical Officer’s own quote: “If you don’t smoke, don’t vape” and place it on these products – sending a clear message that vapes are for adult smokers and nicotine users.

The massive reduction in smoking we have already witnessed proves that vaping and other tobacco-free products are the key to achieving a smoke-free nation. The question my colleagues in the House must therefore ask is this: if this Government truly wants a smoke-free society, why does it persist on reducing their visibility to smokers? The only impact that a full-scale advertising ban will have, is driving people back to cigarettes and kicking the smoke-free can even further down the road.