The head of Britain’s largest cancer charity claimed tobacco companies were lobbying MPs and peers in an attempt to derail Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s policy of phasing out smoking, according to The Guardian.
Sunak’s proposed legislation forbidding people born after 2009 from buying cigarettes and making England the first country in the world to ban smoking is due to be debated in Parliament for the first time on Tuesday, April 16.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, stated that the tobacco industry would use “a variety of tactics” to try to weaken, delay or even derail those plans. The government’s tobacco and vape bill will prevent anyone who turns 15 or under this year from ever being able to buy tobacco products legally.
Mitchell claimed the “world-leading” legislation was “the most important public health policy shift I can remember” and could “see the blight of tobacco removed” from society. She added that smoking was the biggest cause of cancer in the UK and worldwide causing at least 15 different types of disease. However, proposals to ban smoking for the next generation are being privately undermined by tobacco companies.
“We know the tobacco industry is working quite hard to dilute the bill. MPs and peers have briefed us that members of the tobacco industry are seeking to make arguments [against] and amendments to the bill as it goes through the passage of parliament.”
The tobacco industry is allegedly lobbying MPs and peers to oppose the legislation and is seeking support to rise the smoking age from 18 to 21 in an attempt to avoid a complete ban on buying cigarettes for anyone turning 15 this year, according to Mitchell.
The tobacco industry in the UK and around the world uses the same tactics to resist, stop, postpone any pieces of legislation which have a net negative impact on their business.
Some efforts were made to delay the passing of the bill until after the general election. Another tactic was to push for a clause in the bill guaranteeing a review of the legislation in the future. The risk was that this could theoretically lead to the repeal of the smoking ban, Mitchell argued.
“It’s really vital that MPs and peers don’t get distracted by the noise, not least from the tobacco industry – and really focus on the huge public health benefit that would come from this.”
A similar law was due to come into force in New Zealand but was cancelled by the country’s new coalition government in February.
Previously the toughest anti-tobacco rules in the world were due to come into force from July, banning sales to people born after 2009, reducing the nicotine content of smoked tobacco products and cutting the number of tobacco retailers by more than 90 per cent. Researchers and campaigners warned that the policy change would mean people could die as a result.
Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), declared that she was not surprised that British MPs and peers were lobbying for this legislation, especially given the global impact it could have on the tobacco industry.
The tobacco transnationals will fight tooth and nail to block, water down or at the very least delay the UK’s historic legislation to raise the age of sale, because it is an existential threat to their business model.
Arnott noted that while they might “claim they want a smoke-free future,” most of their sales “still come from selling cigarettes, which are sold for vast amounts more than the pennies they cost to make.”
“The lesson of all previous tobacco laws is that once they come into force in one country they spread rapidly round the world. That’s what happened with ad bans, smoke-free laws and plain packs, and that’s why big tobacco can’t afford to let this legislation pass unchallenged.”
Last week, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Sunak’s plan to ban smoking “absolutely nuts”.
When the party of Winston Churchill wants to ban cigars, ‘donnez-moi un break’ as they say in Quebec, it’s just mad.
