Plain cigarette packaging

03 Sep 2013
We know that half of lifetime smokers will die from smoking, that it remains the largest preventable cause of cancer, that it causes one in four deaths from cancer and eight in ten deaths from lung cancer, and that smoking is the biggest cause of health inequality today. That is what makes tobacco packaging different and what makes these measures so important.

This is one of those issues on which what is done upstream- Government measures- has the most impact. In the lifetimes of everyone in the Chamber, levels of smoking have gone down, and attitudes to smoking have changed. When I was a child, people smoked on the television, in films, in meetings and in offices, none of which is now acceptable. That shows what we can do in public health with a mix of moral suasion and legislation, but there is more to be done, and I believe that the packaging measure is the last brick in the wall.

As part of my role as shadow public health Minister, I have been to Europe- to Brussels and so on- to talk about the issue. In Brussels, people are clear that one reason the tobacco industry is so exercised about packaging is a fear of the example that UK legislation would set to the rest of the world, including their huge markets in China and Africa. What is at stake is not a marginal decrease in profit here; it is the big problem of profits forgone in the huge markets elsewhere. That is why it is so important for us in Parliament to set the right example—not just for the health of British people or because of the costs to the health service, but for the rest of the world.

I congratulate such organizations as Cancer Research UK and Action on Smoking and Health that have been ceaseless in bringing the facts before the public and MPs. We know that the issues are difficult and that the Government faces the money and power of big tobacco. If this debate can get one important thing rolling, it should be pressure on the Government at the highest level to allow Parliament to discuss the question: let us debate and decide. The health of Britain’s children and the general population depends on it and the spiraling cost of the NHS depends on it, as does the health of people all over the world, to whom we can set an example with exemplary legislation on cigarette packaging.


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