Tobacco Products (Plain Packaging)

Angela Watkinson Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2013 Westminster Hall

[Bob Blackman]

It was not a referendum or a vote; it was a consultation. It is the power of the arguments that matters in a consultation, rather than necessarily the volume, particularly when the arguments are organised by a lobby such as Philip Morris.

I declare my interest as secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and health. In common with my colleagues, I think that there is no good reason for delaying the implementation of standardised packaging, for child protection and health reasons.

[Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) (Con)]

I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government are already investing heavily in anti-smoking strategies through advertising in the print and broadcast media, hoardings in the street and smoking cessation classes? A packet of cigarettes says in bold letters, “Smoking can kill”. Any individual who makes a conscious decision to disregard all those warnings surely will not be influenced further by the removal of brand names from packets of cigarettes.

[Bob Blackman]

The key issue, to which I will come, is not discouraging current smokers but preventing children from smoking in the first place.