Tory links to ‘Big Tobacco’ revealed in investigation
● ‘Deep concerns’ over threat posed by think-tank to public health plans
No fewer than 25 serving Conservative MPS, including several leadership candidates, are connected to an organisation part-funded by the tobacco industr y, reveals an investigation by a respected health journal.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) says p oliticians with l i n k s t o f r e e - mar ke t t h i n k - tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) include Dominic Raab, David Davis and Owen Paterson.
The BMJ say the organisation is responsible for a series o f a t t a c k s o n p u b l i c h e a l t h initiatives including policies aimed at reducing childhood obesity.
Between them, Neil Record, chair of the IEA’S board of trust e e s s i n c e 2 0 1 5 , a n d f e l l ow IEA trustee since July 2005, Sir Michael Hintze, have given a total of £166,000 in cash or hospitalit y to 30 MPS and £4.3 million to the Tory party since 2002. Between 2010 and 2017, prior to his appointment a s H e a l t h S e c r e t a r y, M a t t Ha n c o c k a c c e p te d £ 3 2 ,0 0 0 in funding from Mr Record. In a special report published today, investigative journalist Jonathan Gornall warns the IEA is closer to p ower than it has been for decades – and may hold the key to No 10.
P u b l i c h e a l t h ex p e r t s s ay they are “deeply concerned” that policies designed to tackle childhood obesity, such as a dve r t i s i n g r e s t r i c t i o n s o n unhealthy foods, could be put at risk under a new Tory leade r s h i p we d d e d t o t h e I E A’s free -market, anti-regulation ideology.
The IEA has a long record of dismissing public health initiatives as “nanny-state” interventions, writes Gornall.
In the past year alone, it has issued statements criticising everything from alcohol controls to sugar taxes as “pointless,” “absurd” and “draconian”.
The IEA keeps its funding sources private, as it is legally allowed to do, but the BMJ reveal it is part-funded by British American Tobacco. In the past, it has also taken money from the gambling, alcohol, soft drinks and sugar industries.
Jon Tricket t MP, Lab our’s shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said “it stinks” that so many Conser vative MPS are deeply engaged with these o r g a n i s a t i o n s , w h i c h f r e - quently advocate policies that run counter to public health.
H e a d d e d : “A s i g n i f i c a n t problem in politics is the presence of influential think tanks propp ed up by dark money and pushing an extreme free market agenda, often in co - operation with corporations looking to tear up regulations that keep us safe. The Institute of Economic Affairs should come clean on who funds it, and Conser vative politicians s h o u l d p u b l i c a l l y d i s t a n c e themselves from the tobacco industry.”
S i r I a n G i l mo r e , d i r e c t o r o f t h e L ive r p o o l C e n t r e f o r Alcohol Research, fears that “public health would b e an early victim of populist free marketism and the victims would be the most vulnerable – including children”.
kevan.christie@jpimedia.co.uk