Kamala Harris has said she no longer wants a ban on plastic straws, in her latest policy U-turn.

The Democrat presidential nominee told a CNN town hall meeting in 2019: “We do need to ban the plastic straws.”

Her campaign has now said Ms Harris has changed her mind and “doesn’t support banning plastic straws”.

“She cast the tie-breaking vote on the most consequential legislation to combat climate change and create clean energy jobs in history, and as president, she is going to be focused on expanding on that progress,” a Harris campaign official told Axios.

“She joked even then about how crappy paper straws are and the need to come up with better eco-friendly alternatives,” the official added.

Attacks from Trump

The move may be intended to prevent further attacks from the Trump campaign, which has previously highlighted the policy.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser in the Trump campaign, told NBC in July: “Kamala Harris had a long, liberal, radical record in California well before she even became vice-president.

He continued: “I mean, heck, she wants to get rid of plastic straws, for goodness’ sake.”

A number of US cities have already banned single-use plastic straws, including Seattle, Washington DC, and Malibu. They have also been banned in the UK and parts of the European Union.

A series of U-turns

Ms Harris has been criticised for changing her position on a number of key issues since being nominated.

In addition to her latest about-turn, her team has said – via anonymous aides – that she no longer supports Medicare for All or mandatory gun buy-back programs, both of which she called for during her 2020 Democratic primary campaign.

Ms Harris also revealed in late August that she no longer wants to ban fracking, another position she held during the 2020 primary race. The change of position is likely to increase her chances of winning the swing state of Pennsylvania, a hotbed for oil and gas drilling.

She told CNN that she now believed it is possible to “grow and increase a thriving clean-energy economy without banning fracking”.

Ms Harris insisted during the interview that her “values have not changed”, even if some of her policy ideas have.