A WIRRAL MEP has vowed to continue to campaign for smokers trying to kick the habit with e-cigarettes.

Liberal Democrat Member of European Parliament Chris Davies’ views come after a key committee voted to restrict their use.

MEPs agreed to treat e-cigarettes as medicines, reducing their availability compared to tobacco and putting big costs on users.

Vaporising nicotine to be inhaled by the smoker, the e-cigarettes give addicts their ‘hit’ without many of the harmful chemicals and second-hand smoke produced by regular cigarettes.

The issue will now be the subject of a vote by the full European Parliament in the autumn.

And Mr Davies joined other Lib Dem MEPs as well as Conservative and UKIP members to vote against the change while Labour voted in favour.

He said: “In an ideal world no-one would be addicted to nicotine but we don’t live in an ideal world and it is better to vape than to smoke.

"E-cigs are a potential game changer in the fight against tobacco because smokers find them enjoyable to use.  They can help people break their addiction in a way that conventional nicotine replacement therapies will never do.  They could save millions of lives.

“I have been contacted by hundreds of constituents who have had their lives improved by e-cigarettes.  Labour MEPs may think they are protecting people from themselves but restricting e-cigarettes will only hurt vapers and their families as they turn back to tobacco.

“We now have only a few weeks to change minds and try and win the vote in the full Parliament.”