Call for ban on vaping lobby funding
LOBBYISTS who represent tobacco companies should be banned from running an influential Westminster committee, the former standards watchdog chief has warned.
Sir Alistair Graham, chairman of the committee for standards in public life from 2003 to 2007, said it was not appropriate for the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) to bankroll a parliamentary group that is meant to be holding them to account.
He called for the rules governing All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGS) to be overhauled to prevent lobbyists from buying influence. Members of the APPG on e-cigarettes have also been criticised for accepting hospitality from tobacco companies, including tickets to the World Cup.
The cross-party group was set up in 2014 by the Tory MP Mark Pawsey, who said the sector “demands further scrutiny and investigation from MPS”.
From its inception, the APPG on ecigarettes was run by a lobby group acting for the e-cigarette brand E-lites, owned by Japan Tobacco International, as well as the former e-cigarette trade body.
The lobby group, called ABZED, spent between £6,620 and £8,120 on two receptions for MPS. UKVIA took over running the secretariat in 2016 and has so far spent between £48,000 and £52,000. Several tobacco companies have seats on the UKVIA board, including British American Tobacco, JTI and Philip Morris International.
Sir Alistair, who was chairman of the committee on standards in public life from 2003 to 2007, said that running an APPG is a way for lobby groups to “influence” policymakers and it serves to “undermine their credibility”.
“I have always been uneasy about industry groups financing a cross-party group because they have clearly have got a major vested interest in the outcomes of that group,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “They are undoubtedly bound to influence them in a way that is going to benefit their industry and increase their profits.”
APPGS are allowed to have external organisations acting as their secretariat, which they are required to declare alongside donations of over £5,000.
Sir Alistair said that the funding rules for APPGS must be reviewed, adding that parliamentary funding would “guarantee their independence”.
Some of the APPG’S members have previously accepted hospitality from tobacco companies, giving rise to concerns about a possible conflict of interest.
Mr Pawsey, the group’s chairman, accepted £1,650 worth of tickets to a Rugby World Cup match from JTI. He said he declared the tickets appropriately, adding that he set up the APPG so that MPS could learn more about e-cigarettes and their potential.
Stephen Metcalfe MP, a member of the APPG from 2016-17, accepted tickets to the Chelsea Flower show from JTI worth £1,132.80 in 2011.
He said: “I have not accepted hospitality from any tobacco company since and do not intend to in the future.”
Glyn Davies also accepted tickets from JTI to the Chelsea Flower show in 2014 worth £1,404. That year he became one of the first MPS to join the APPG and is the group’s secretary.
Mr Davies declined to comment.