New research shows how tobacco giants influence the public health agenda
An investigation by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has today revealed the influence that the tobacco industry has over parliamentarians.
Since 2010, the BMJ report finds, 38 MPs have accepted more than £60,000 worth of industry hospitality, and 20 of these MPs voted against plain packaging. Worryingly, more than half of these MPs are from constituencies where the number of smoking-related deaths exceeds the national average of 289 per 100,000.
29 of the 38 MPs are Conservatives, eight are Labour and one is an independent.
In 2014 alone, 10 MPs were entertained by the tobacco industry at the Chelsea Flower Show. The BMJ says MPs have also accepted free tickets to the men’s final at Wimbledon, test matches at the Oval, opera at Glyndebourne, and a Paul McCartney concert.
While there is nothing to stop companies inviting MPs and peers to the occasional event, provided the parliamentarian includes it in the relevant Register of Interests, the WHO Frame Convention on Tobacco Control, to which the UK is a signatory, states that parties should ‘interact with the tobacco industry only when and to the extent strictly necessary to enable them to effectively regulate the tobacco industry and tobacco products’.
The findings raise uncomfortable questions about how far the public health agenda can be manipulated by the interests of the tobacco industry, as BMJ journalist Jonathan Gornall points out.
Standardised tobacco packaging was introduced to tackle a problem which places a huge strain on the NHS and which health minister Earl Howe described in January as ‘a significant driver of health inequalities’.
A 2013 independent review undertaken by Sir Cyril Chantler found that ‘there is very strong evidence that exposure to tobacco advertising and promotion increases the likelihood of children taking up smoking.’
Naturally tobacco companies have opposed the move globally. Japan Tobacco International (JTI), the third largest tobacco company, whose brands include Camel, Winston, Benson and Hedges and Silk Cut, insists that ‘proposals for plain packaging are not based on, or consistent with, a credible and scientifically rigorous understanding of the behavior of smokers.’
The BMJ’s investigation shows that JTI has invited MPs to a series of high profile events where tickets can cost thousands of pounds.
Gornall writes that while there is no evidence that these MPs discussed issues about tobacco and packaging with their hosts, that MPs believe it is acceptable to accept such hospitality from the industry, is ‘extraordinary’.
Of the 20 MPs who received hospitality and voted against plain packaging, only one responded when contacted by the BMJ. Stephen Hepburn, the Labour MP for Jarrow, explained that he felt it was appropriate to accept hospitality because the industry had created jobs in his constituency.
But Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said Hepburn, or any other MP, should look at the number of people dying every year compared with the number of jobs.
Jarrow has the second worst incidence of lung disease and smoking related deaths among the 37 constituencies whose MPs accepted tobacco hospitality.
A spokesperson for JTI said that offering hospitality to MPs is a ‘democratic [and] transparent’ way of balancing the debate about tobacco.
Ruby Stockham is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter
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9 Responses to “Tobacco companies are wooing politicians with rock concerts, says BMJ”
stevep
The use of tobacco is only a choice the first time it is tried, thereafter it becomes a highly dangerous addiction and a very lucrative way of making money. The dark art of the tobacco companies is to persuade the prospective addict to take the first step and sample their wares.
Sometimes, even in a supposedly “free” society the government and authorities have a duty to step in and protect people from harm, whether it is from dangerous criminals who, from our point of view, are harmful to society, or from the criminals point of view, as they see it, perfectly entitled to maim and murder anyone who gets in their way. Or indeed Tobacco companies hell-bent on maximising profits whilst leaving society to pick up the socially devastating healthcare costs.
Of course, this leads to a wider debate about how the alcohol industry, the food industry etc. operate and indeed, about the profit motive itself, not to mention a debate about what freedom of choice actually means.
Ray Ashby
What a sh 1t piece of journalism: “the BMJ report finds, 38 MPs have accepted more than £60,000 worth of industry hospitality”……………. ……………. and their names are??????????????
I James
I see your an obvious anti- but at least get your facts correct. ” hell-bent on maximising profits whilst leaving society to pick up the socially devastating healthcare costs.” not true.
Tax revenue from tobacco in 2012/13 amounted to £12.3 billion – £9.7 billion in excise duty plus £2.6 billion in VAT. The total tax burden (excise duty plus VAT) accounts for 88% of the price of the cheapest cigarettes on sale in the UK.
Smoking costs the National Health Service (NHS) approximately £2 billion a year for treating diseases caused by smoking. (Thats from ASH)
If we all stopped drinking and smoking general taxation would rise significantly.
Smokers and drinks pay for their pleasure.
John Samuel
But not enough.
stevep
Wonderful tobacco and drinks lobby thinking! perhaps we could all help the country out of a hole by smoking and drinking more, the resulting increased revenue could pay off the financial deficit, fund the NHS and eventually reduce overall personal taxation to zero over a period of time. We could then enjoy fatty junk foods, take no exercise, become football hooligans, drive dangerously, read the Sun without feeling the slightest pang of guilt about being a burden on society.