Bill Newton Dunn fights to ensure e-cigarettes remain freely available to the public

The European Parliament will be shortly voting on a new EU law for tobacco products. One proposal, put forward by Labour MEP Linda McAvan, requests to regulate electronic cigarettes as medicinal products which would obviously restrict their availability to members of the public.

E-cigarettes are used by an estimated 1.3 million people across the UK and are widely recognised as being far safer than regular cigarettes, with many people turning to e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking.

By classifying them as medicines, ordinary people in the East Midlands would have to obtain a prescription in order use them, making them less available than ordinary tobacco cigarettes which are very harmful.

Bill Newton Dunn, MEP for the East Midlands comments:

"E-cigarettes have the potential to save millions of lives across Europe because they can be a great aid to help people stop smoking. 100,000 deaths occur every year in the UK as a result of smoking tobacco and these figures must not be ignored."

"E-cigarettes should of course be regulated so that they are as safe as possible, but not so far that it prevents ordinary people from being able to use them for their own benefit. We need to help people to give up smoking- not hinder them"

"UKIP is not doing anything to stop the proposals, Labour MEPs are completely undecided and the Conservatives are always on the side of big tobacco firms, having previously voted against harm-reduction measures- therefore it is left to Liberal Democrats to try and ensure E-cigarettes remain available to the public."