NEWS
Anger As House of Lords Move
To Block The TPD In The UK
Fails
The House of Lords bid to block the TPD in the UK dramatically failed when
Labour and the Lib/Dems said they would not support the controversial move.
A
t the time the vote had been
due to take place more
than 52,000 UK vapers
had signed an online petition
to the Prime Minister and
Opposition leader calling for MPs to
block the implementation of the Tobacco
Products Directive.
The Lords move was spearheaded by
Conservative Lord Callanan who argued
that the new regulations failed to take
account of recent medical opinion that
vaping was significantly less harmful
than smoking and could save millions
of lives in the UK.
Explaining the decision to withdraw the
motion, Lord Callanan wrote: “It became
apparent that, despite the valiant efforts
of many in the vaping community, there
was no chance of Labour and/or Lib
Dems supporting my motion.
“I therefore consulted some of my
Parliamentary backers and they all
agreed that there was no point in
pursuing the debate when we were
certain to lose, probably overwhelmingly.
“The next best option was to amend the
motion in the hope that the opposition
may be persuaded to support a highly
critical ‘regret motion instead, which is
what I have done. I am in discussions
14 ISSUE 06 VAPOUROUND MAGAZINE
with the Chief Whip to have the debate
in ‘Prime time’, when we can ensure
maximum coverage.
“The situation is not ideal and I
appreciate that many vapers will feel let
down but I feel that this is best option
under the circumstances.”
The vaping petition page at change.org
was highly critical of the failure of MPs to
back the move to get the TPD overturned
in the UK.
It said: “No politician has done more for
vaping than the incredibly courageous
Martin Callanan. As an MEP and now in
the House of Lords he has fought like a
tiger for vaping.
“He is the man who more than any other
in the European Parliament successfully
fought off compulsory medicinal
regulation of e-cigarettes which would
have completely killed vaping for 500
million Europeans.
“However in the UK Parliament,
he has not been able to block the
pro EU Commission instincts of
Labour’s Shadow Healt h Secretary,
Heidi Alexander.
“Despite Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbyn
having described the TPD as “perverse”
and “contradictory”, Labour has
announced that it will vote against Lord
Callanan’s fatal motion against the TPD.
Sadly there is simply now no chance of
the Lords vote being won.”
Labour’s Heidi Alexander, in a response
to a vaper who condemned the party’s
failure to support the Lords motion,
said it would be wrong to block the TPD.
She wrote: “Whilst we believe the
Government does need to do more to
address concerns of vapers, Labour
is not able to support annulling these
regulations given their wider benefits.
“Overall, I believe these regulations
as a whole will help reduce the uptake
of smoking amongst young people,
and help ensure the safety and quality
of e-cigarettes.”
Referring to Labour’s concerns about
the TPD she wrote: “The Labour Party’s
concerns include the failure of the
Government to establish a monitoring
mechanism to measure whether the
directive will have a negative impact
on the number of smokers using
electronic cigarettes, and the failure
of the Government to launch a public
awareness campaign re-assuring
smokers that vaping is much less
harmful than smoking.”