Welsh MP received donations from tobacco industry

According to Wales Online, two Welsh MPs who opposed plain packaging for tobacco products and voted against several tobacco control measures received gifts and donations from the tobacco industry. Simon Hart, appointed Secretary of State for Wales in 2019, and his predecessor Alun Cairns, both received gifts from Japan Tobacco International between 2011 and 2014. In 2011 and 2012, Mr Cairns received two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show worth more than £2,200 from Japan Tobacco International. It was from this point that he opposed the bill banning smoking in vehicles carrying children and plain packaging on tobacco products. In May 2014, Simon Hart also accepted two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show worth £1,404.00 from the same company: Japan Tobacco International. Just three months earlier, Mr Hart was one of 24 MPs who voted against amendments to the Children and Families Bill, which allowed the UK Government to introduce plain packaging regulations for tobacco products and made it an offence for an adult to buy cigarettes for anyone under the age of 18. Two years earlier, Hart was one of 50 MPs who wrote to the then Secretary of State for Health, Andrew Lansley, to express serious concerns about the Government's plain packaging proposals. France was not spared from such gifts either (invitations to previews, to international tennis matches at Roland Garros, to matches at the Grand Stade de France, etc.). Also, the health modernization law includes a provision requiring tobacco manufacturers to declare their lobbying expenses, including such gifts or invitations whose value exceeds 10 Euros. The reports are made public on the website of the Ministry of Health.©Tobacco Free Generation| ©National Committee Against Smoking |