VAPES OF WRATH

MSP BLASTS THREAT OF TORY BLOCK ON GADGET BAN | Campaigners warn No10 may use Brexit law to hijack our crackdown

- DAN VEVERS

A BAN on disposable vapes in Scotland could be scuppered by Brexit laws – despite nearly 4000 Scots backing the Record’s campaign. 

SNP-Green ministers are considering outlawing the polluting single-use gadgets after we launched a campaign to raise awareness of the growing litter menace they pose to our streets and green spaces.

But underpost-Brexit regulations, Holyrood could ban the manufacture and sale within Scotland yet be forced to allow them across the Border from England into the Scottish market.

The Scottish Greens said it would be a “democratic outrage” if the UK Government’s controversial Internal Market Act (UKIMA) was used to block or hamper a ban.

It states all four nations have to accept goods at the standards set in any one country, suggesting that without a ban in England, they couldn’t be truly banned in Scotland – unless a one-off exemption from the Westminster law was agreed.

It has been reported that the UK Government plans to use the same law to block Scotland’s bottle and can deposit return scheme.

Despite calls for a UK-wide ban, Tory ministers are instead looking at other measures to curb single-use vapes like a new tax on them or a crackdown on marketing to youngsters.

That would create a clash with any proposed ban in Scotland.

Green health spokeswoman Gillian Mackay said: “What we are proposing is a measured, common sense and preventative approach to tackling what is clearly a looming environmental and health crisis. The World Health Organisation, campaign groups and others have all produced data showing the harm these products are causing and it should be up to us, as parliamentarians, to act in the interests of the public.