UK: Tobacco companies lobby to help shape anti-smoking policy

The four major tobacco multinationals are proposing to the British government to be involved in defining the new anti-smoking policy, in which e-cigarettes should be given pride of place. This is mainly a new attempt for them to place their heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches.

France and the United Kingdom both had a smoking prevalence of around 30% in the early 2000s. Twenty years later, France still has 24% daily smokers, while the United Kingdom has only a little over half that number (13%) after having initiated a structured and coordinated policy much earlier, despite fierce opposition from the tobacco industry. Based on this observation, analyses of the course of action to be taken diverge.

Tobacco companies seek to promote their heated tobacco products

The four major tobacco multinationals – Philip Morris International (PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Imperial Brands – have spontaneously and insistently offered their help to the British government to restart this decline in smoking prevalence. Declaring that they too want to see the disappearance of tobacco and the advent of a Tobacco-Free Generation in the United Kingdom by 2030, their aim is above all to include heated tobacco products and pouches (nicotine sachets to be slipped between the lip and gum, similar to snus) alongside electronic cigarettes in the next protocols of recommendations for stopping smoking.[1].

Kingsley Wheaton, BAT's head of marketing, believes that his company "will play a crucial role in helping adult smokers in the UK switch to less risky alternatives". Grégoire Verdeaux, vice-president of PMI, argues for his part that "The tobacco industry knows a lot about consumers and has a lot of knowledge to share with governments about how to get cigarette smokers to try something else."The focus on supposedly less harmful tobacco and nicotine products, however, tends to obscure the harmfulness of dual use of tobacco and e-cigarettes, with dual use affecting 30.51% of vapers and 171% of smokers in the United Kingdom.[2]Similarly, the focus on adult smokers who have difficulty quitting leads to neglecting the spread of nicotine products among non-smokers and promotes the renormalization of tobacco.

Anti-tobacco program seeks new lease of life

Civil society representatives believe that the government has let its guard down on the smoking front in recent years. "The budget for the fight against smoking has been cut by a third since 2015. It doesn't make sense", says Deborah Arnott, director of Action for Smoking and Heath (ASH). “We were delighted when the government announced the 2030 tobacco-free target”, she continues, "But for three years there has been no plan, no investment and, following this trend, no chance of success.". “Tobacco companies are part of the problem, not the solution”, said Sarah Woolnough, director of Asthma and Lung UK, "they should not be allowed to speak out when it comes to the health of the nation".

Javed Khan, recently appointed to head a mission on smoking by the Minister of Health, reframes the wishes of manufacturers by referring them to their responsibility as manufacturers: "The real question that needs to be answered is: Should taxpayers pay for the consequences of deadly industrial products? Or should we turn to the producers and tell them they are responsible?" A study published in 2021 in the British Medical Journal concluded that heated tobacco products "have the same addictive potential as cigarettes; they should be regulated as tobacco products, with health messages similar to those of cigarettes and with a ban on their advertising"[3].

The next major step in the UK's programme is expected to be a tax on tobacco profits (estimated at 67p per packet of cigarettes) to fund the fight against smoking.

An example of collusion between political and industrial actors

The lobbying efforts of tobacco manufacturers on political decision-makers lead to constant questioning of the mechanisms of this game of influence. The bridges between the political and business worlds are a key cog: by joining a cigarette company's team, a political actor can use his address book and knowledge of institutional processes. Very active in the fields of communication and market development, Grégoire Verdeaux embodies here a textbook case of collusion between political and industrial actors.

After being Michel Baroin's European advisor when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission, then Deputy Chief of Staff at the Elysée Palace under Nicolas Sarkozy, Grégoire Verdeaux worked at EDF as Director of European Policy, then at Vodafone as Director of International Policy. In 2020, he joined the lobbying firm Hering Schuppener Consulting, since renamed Finsbury Glover Hering, before becoming Vice President of External Operations at Philip Morris International on 1^er September 2021[4].

André Calantzopoulos, PMI's CEO at the time, welcomed him in these terms: “Grégoire’s breadth of experience, working for national and European parliaments and governments, the UN, WHO, as well as transforming private companies, has given him a unique understanding of how policy decisions are made. This makes him an ideal candidate to join us at PMI and help adapt the regulatory environment for reduced-risk products…”[5]Adapting society to tobacco and nicotine products rather than the other way around, the logic of the cigarette manufacturer is expressed here bluntly and justifies, for public and health actors, strict observance of the principle of protection of public policies with regard to the tobacco lobby, as stipulated in article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Keywords: UK, lobbying, heated tobacco, ASH

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[1] Gil O, Britain decides if Big Tobacco should help it kick the habit, The Daily Telegraph, published April 24, 2022, accessed April 25, 2022.

[2] Action on Smoking and Health, ASH Factsheet: Use of Electronic Cigarettes (Vapourisers) among Adults in Great Britain, ASH, 2017.

[3] Berlin I, Jacot-Sadowski I, Humair JP, Cornuz J, International expert consensus on electronic nicotine delivery systems and heated tobacco products: a Delphi survey, BMJ Open 2021;11:e045724. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045724.

[4] Grégoire Verdeaux: the friend who manages the treasure, Democracy Center for Transparency, undated, accessed April 25, 2022.

[5] PMI - A new vice-president of external affairs: Grégoire Verdeaux, La Revue des tabacs, published on August 24, 2021, consulted on April 25, 2022.

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