Prime minister wrote to ministers saying he did not want them to ‘advocate for specific options or opine on the likely outcome of the process’ Selling nicotine-free vapes to children under the age of 18 has become illegal from today, the government has said. Children were already banned from buying vapes containing nicotine. But, under the Tobacco and Vapes Act, shops across the UK will now be banned from selling nicotine-free vapes, and nicotine pouches, to children. Vaping can be a way to help established adult smokers who are already addicted to nicotine from tobacco to swap to a less dangerous product. Vaping is considered safer than smoking, but that is a low bar. Vapes should therefore never be used by children or non-smokers. Some children have already come to harm from bad reactions to vapes. The long-term health harms of vaping in today’s children will only become clear over tim
UK politics: Burnham denies preventing ministers from speaking about plans for closer relationship with EU – as it happened

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The Guardian view on a changing Brexit debate: Kemi Badenoch is trapped in denial | Editorial
The prime minister’s ambitions might be ambiguous, but unlike the Conservative leader, he is following voters and the facts British politics is still polarised around Brexit, although 10 years on from the referendum, the terms of debate are very different. Or they should be. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has moved discussions of European solidarity from the realm of abstraction to a matter of urgent defence partnership. Donald Trump’s presidency in the US, marked by scorn for European democracies and indulgence of Vladimir Putin , has undermined confidence that Britain can rely on any “special relationship” with Washington. Under these circumstances, it would be absurd to deny that a reappraisal of Brexit is in order. The prime minister acknowledged this in his speech at the Labour party conference last month, calling for a national conversation about the future relationship with