Vaping and junk food firms will be banned from advertising to children on TV and social media, under Keir Starmer's plan to improve Britain's health.
The Labour leader said he would change advertising rules if his party gets into power after a surge in vape usage among youngsters.
In a speech launching Labour’s health policies, Mr Starmer said: “I am saying very clearly to those who profit from harming our children - no, not in Britain.
“We will change advertising rules and we will make sure that products which are harmful to our children’s health - vaping, junk food, sugary snacks - cannot be advertised to our children. No - not in Britain.”
He added to BBC Radio 5 Live: "We have to include social media in that of course. I've got teenage children so I know very well where they get their information from."
NHS figures for 2021 showed that 9% of 11 to 15 year old children used e-cigarettes, up from 6% in 2018.
The Government is currently undertaking a review into children and non-smokers vape habits but is yet to introduce any measures to curb the worrying trend.
In Mr Starmer’s speech, he said a "cruel lottery of who lives and who dies" exists in Britain despite the NHS being founded to offer care for all those who need it.
He said his wife Victoria, a trained solicitor who now works in the NHS as an occupational health worker, corrects him when he says the NHS is “on its knees”, telling him: “No, it’s on its face”.
The Labour leader set out a wide range of pledges in his speech including clear targets on reducing cardiovascular disease including heart attacks and strokes by 25% within a decade and ensuring 75% of all cancer is diagnosed at stages one and two.
He also committed to making sure ambulances respond to cardiac arrest callouts within seven minutes and restoring the target of 95% of all A&E patients being seen within four hours. Labour will also commit to bringing down suicide rates, he said.
The MP for Holborn and St Pancras said “science and technology” was the “game changer” and “light at the end of the tunnel” in fixing the NHS.
He vowed to expand the NHS app and to use AI to “change the nature of healthcare”, pointing to how it could be used to diagnose lung cancer, known as a "silent killer”.
Mr Starmer told the audience the Tories have accepted the NHS “as part of the political furniture, in their heart of hearts they don't believe in its central promise”.
He went on: "For them it's a cost, not a cause, and from that mindset springs the well of their neglect.
"The poverty of their ambition, the sticking plaster, crisis management impulse that never sees the opportunities, never addresses the long-term."
The Labour leader ruled out imposing a salt and sugar tax during the cost-of-living crisis, but refused to be drawn on whether he would consider a levy in the event that economic pressures ease.
The recommendation was made by the government’s former food tsar Henry Dimbleby to help tackle obesity.
Separate to his speech, Mr Starmer also suggested children will be taught about mental health in schools under a Labour government.
The Labour leader was asked about the Three Dads Walking campaign - a group of fathers who lost their young daughters to suicide and who have called for mental health teaching to be improved in schools.
He told BBC Breakfast: "I have to say (the Three Dads are) quite incredible in terms of what they've been through and their ability and determination and commitment ... I'm not sure I could do that if I'd been through what they've been through.
“We're talking to them about their proposals. My Shadow Secretary of State has met them and we're keen to look at their proposals.
“We want to focus very much on death by suicide because I think the fact that the biggest killer, I think, of our young people is suicide is not something everyone knows.”
He said we need to “drive those numbers down”, adding: “the start of that is having much earlier mental health support in the community”.
In his speech, Mr Starmer said his party wants “to revolutionise mental health treatment in our country”
He committed to 8,500 new mental health professionals, specialist access in every school and guaranteed treatment within four weeks for those who need it.
“We must move from a mind-set that views health as all about sickness to one where we put prevention first - right across society,” he added.
“So we’ll take bold action where early intervention can make a huge difference - on mental health.”
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