[Intl-tobacco] UK: Tobacco ads to be stubbed out by the summer after Lords victory

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco ads to be stubbed out by the summer after Lords victory

by Anne Perkins, political correspondent
Source: The Guardian (uk), 2002-03-16

Tobacco advertising and
sponsorship will be banned by the summer after the government said
it would pick up legislation pushed through the Lords by the Liberal
Democrats.

The Lib Dems were threatening to give up their own debating time in
the Commons to get the bill onto the statute book. That would have
left the government in the impossible position of having to whip its
backbenchers against one of its own manifesto commitments.

Yesterday's announcement means tobacco advertising in the press, on
billboards and on the internet will be banned this summer. Formula
one motor racing, which relies heavily on tobacco money, was earlier
given an exemption until 2006.

New controls will also give the government greater say over
point-of-sale advertising and put Britain in line with 16 other
European countries over direct tobacco promotion.

The tobacco industry spends an estimated £130m on advertising and
promotion in the UK - 10 times the amount spent by the government on
anti-smoking advertising.

Indicating there had been tacit government support for the bill in
the Lords, Alan Milburn, the health secretary, confirmed his
decision - first reported in the Guardian in January - as the Lib
Dem peer Lord Clement-Jones celebrated the successful passage of his
bill. "I am grateful to Lord Clement-Jones for introducing the bill
... he steered it through the Lords with support throughout the
house in a robust and effective manner."

Tobacco sponsorship has been one of the issues whose handling by the
government has alienated some Labour backbenchers. There was outrage
when it emerged, soon after Mr Blair became prime minister in 1997,
that Bernie Ecclestone, the formula one tycoon, had given £1m to
Labour at the time of the election.

Mr Blair met Mr Ecclestone in Downing Street, and then formula one
was exempted from proposed tobacco sponsorship legislation. The
donation was later returned.

After backbench pressure, the bill was reintroduced but with formula
one given until 2006 to find alternative sponsorship. That bill fell
when the 2001 general election was called. Labour then made a pledge
in its manifesto to bring in a ban during this parliament, but to
the alarm of the anti-tobacco lobby, it did not appear in the
government's legislation programme announced in the Queen's Speech
last June.

Right up until the final stages of the Lib Dem bill - a duplicate of
the lost government legislation - in the Lords yesterday, the
government refused to commit itself to supporting it. Without that
support, the bill would almost certainly have fallen for lack of
parliamentary time.

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), the
anti-smoking pressure group, said winning government support had
been a crucial hurdle and he now expected the bill to "sail through
the Commons" and become law by the summer.

"If the government had not done this, there would have been outright
dismay because without government time in the Commons the bill would
not have reached the statute book before the end of the session," he
said.

Dr Ian Bogle, the British Medical Association chairman, said:
"Britain's doctors have no doubt that this ban will save as many
3,000 lives a year. The evidence shows that comprehensive
advertising bans cut tobacco consumption. That is very good news for
the nation's health - and bad news for the tobacco industry."

Lord Clement-Jones, Lib Dem health spokesman in the Lords,
commenting after his private member's bill on tobacco advertising
received its third reading, surviving a Conservative wrecking
amendment, said: "I am delighted that this essential public health
measure is now closer to the statute book.

"It is vital that the government does the right thing and gives this
bill the time it needs in the Commons to become law."