Andy Burnham has urged shops to stop selling disposable barbecues amid increased wildfire risk driven by this summer’s droughts.
The prime minister said he was urging “all retailers big and small” to adhere to voluntary guidance to suspend sales during extreme heat.
He added that in the “longer term” the government would look at potentially banning the single-use grills during summer months.
It comes after a potential ban was discussed at an emergency Cobra meeting on the government’s response to record temperatures.
A number of large retailers and supermarkets have voluntarily stopped selling the devices under a framework, external agreed in 2023 between fire chiefs and the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
This says that retailers should suspend sales once an extreme heat event has been declared as imminent, or in response to “reasonable, evidence based” requests from local councils.
Earlier, Burnham told reporters single-use grills had been behind a number of recent blazes and people should not be using them “at this moment in time”.
“We do want people to take the greatest possible care when they are out in the countryside, both in terms of cigarettes, but also those temporary barbecues that we know are causing risk of fires.”
After the Cobra meeting, Burnham said: “We would say to retailers do not put disposable barbecues on sale at this moment in time.”
Nearly three-quarters of England and all of Wales have been officially declared in drought, creating conditions rife for fire to spread.
The Met Office has issued a rare amber extreme heat warning for Thursday, with temperatures peaking in the mid-to-high 30s across the Midlands and south-east of England, and a high of 38C possible.