According to Wales Online, two Welsh MPs who opposed plain packaging for tobacco products and voted against several tobacco control measures received donations and gifts 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.<\/p>\n
In 2011 and 2012, Mr. Cairns received two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show worth over \u00a32,200 from Japan Tobacco International. From then on, he opposed the proposed law banning smoking in vehicles carrying children and plain packaging for tobacco products.<\/p>\n
In May 2014, Simon Hart also accepted two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show worth \u00a31,404.00 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 regulations on plain packaging for tobacco products and made it an offense for an adult to buy cigarettes for anyone under 18.<\/p>\n
Two years earlier, Hart was one of 50 MPs who wrote to the then Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, expressing serious concerns about the government's plain packaging proposals.<\/p>\n
France was also not spared from such gifts (invitations to previews, to international tennis matches at Roland Garros, to matches at the Grand Stade de France, etc.). The health modernization law also includes a provision requiring tobacco companies to declare their lobbying expenses, including such gifts or invitations whose value exceeds 10 Euros. The reports are made public on the Ministry of Health's website.<\/p>\n