Vaping firm Riot Labs has taken aim at the government’s vaping legislation again, this time in a bid to keep it at the top of the in-tray for the new Labour government.
Delivering a life-sized Boris Johnson behind protective glass casing to Westminster in election week, Riot Labs wanted to get people talking and get vaping legislation back on the agenda for the new government.
Bemused Londoners took to social media after a flat-bed delivery truck was seen transporting the former prime minister around London inside a glass case that read: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS, with videos of the event racking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak tried to bring in some of the world's strictest anti-smoking rules and wanted to ban disposable vapes, vape flavours and branding, which Riot Labs sas would be “a disaster for the vape sector and more importantly, the millions of adult smokers trying to quit cigarettes.”
Sunak’s plan failed to become law before he called an election, but Labour recently told Reuters they will still “ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes” and reportedly still plans to ban flavours.
A recent study – conducted by One Poll and commissioned by the UKVIA – found 83 per cent of surveyed vapers say flavoured vapes helped them ‘pack in their smoking habit’. It also found one in three respondents, an estimated 1.5 million vapers, believe a ban on flavours would lead them back to conventional cigarettes.
“This year has been a tumultuous one for the vape sector, with the government trying - and ultimately failing - to rush through unjustified new vaping laws which would have been dangerous for millions of adult smokers trying to quit,” Ben Johnson, Riot Labs chief executive, commented.
The reality of Rishi’s vaping legislation is giving people less choice, less value and ultimately less reasons to quit smoking at all. Now Labour’s in power, smoking and vaping policy will be back on the lengthy to-do list and we'll be taking the fight to policy makers to stand-up for the vape sector.”
The Boris stunt comes a month after Riot Labs and Northampton vape shop, Right Vape, last took aim at the vaping legislation. Opening the ‘Flavourless Vape shop’ on Kingsley Park Terrace in Northampton, the quit smoking missionaries drew attention to what the vape shop of the future could look like if legislation was brought in, quite literally.
Opened by Rishi Sunak lookalike, Sanju, the launch of the shop even entered the mainstream after taking an unexpected turn when ‘Rishi Sunak’ was egged by an angry member of the public who mistook him for the real prime minister.
Johnson added: “We are massively in favour of laws to tackle youth vaping, such as a fully funded licence scheme for retailers - but we strongly disagree on the Government's approach to a flavour ban."
