Leaving the European Union will be good for the e-cigarette industry, says a shop owner who used them to give up smoking.

Marcus French, 48, from Hove, owns and runs the Totally Wicked stores in Worthing and Shoreham.

Nicotine-containing e-cigarettes are not a tobacco product but they are included in the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive, which regulates their manufacture, sale and marketing.

Mr French said: “Some of the EU legislation, for example on no under-age sales and using child-proof caps, makes sense and Totally Wicked were doing this already.

“But rules about bottle sizes, maximum strengths and tank sizes are laughable.”

Public Health England has found e-cigarettes are about 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.

In April 2016, a Royal College of Physicians report concluded that e-cigarettes are likely to be beneficial to public health if people give up smoking cigarettes.

But last week Professor Gillian Leng, of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said the long-term health risks of vaping were still unknown.

“The risk is that we don’t know what the long-term impact of using e-cigarettes is because they are new products and we really need to gather that information.

“They are 95 per cent safer than cigarettes but there is five per cent that we don’t know about.”

Mr French said e-cigarettes helped him quit.

He said: “I was a 30-a-day smoker for more than 20 years. I managed to give up five years ago on the first Stoptober campaign. It was a very light-hearted attempt, I was just making good on a promise I made to my kids.

“I decided to use e-cigarettes to replace my morning cigarette and coffee. It worked out just fine, and by lunchtime I was still going strong and suddenly realised I could actually make this work.

“I have not touched a cigarette since. People still think vaping is as bad for you as smoking but I think the Government is realising the need for more education on the health benefits of vaping over smoking.

“I believe once we leave the EU, rules on e-cigarettes will change and they will be considered separate from tobacco products, which will allow us to sell bigger and stronger vapes.”

Marcus insists Totally Wicked puts an emphasis on strict quality controls and thorough product testing before stocking items in the shops in Brighton Road, Worthing, and Brunswick Road, Shoreham