Parents have reacted with dismay to government plans to eliminate wet wipes and have called for a viable alternative before they are banned.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said wipes containing plastic would be banished within 25 years as part of new single-use plastic rules, to prevent them clogging up sewers, damaging riverbeds and harming marine life.

But many parents and charities said wipes were a necessity when dealing with young children and took to social media claiming the problem lay with the ‘fools that flush them’ rather than the products themselves.

Julia Margo wrote on Twitter: “Essential items for new mums, in fact for most of us. If only people wouldn’t flush them down the loo.”