Iran: Freedom and Democracy

Debate between Ian Paisley and Bob Blackman

Thursday 1st February 2024 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman]

I thank my hon. Friend—she must have looked at the next section of my speech. The IRGC literally runs and rules Iran, disregarding democracy, freedom of expression and basic human rights. The majority of people live in fear of speaking out or engaging in political matters in any form, with vigorous covert intelligence deployed to all parts of the country, seeking to sift out any potential opposition that might pose a threat to the regime.

The authorities censor all media, jamming satellite TV channels and filtering and blocking social media platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Further, the authorities shut off or disrupt the internet and mobile phone networks, particularly during protests, in order to suppress mobilisation and hide from civilians the sheer scale of the violations and privacy breaches committed by the security forces. In attempting to justify the infringements, the IRGC is even trying to push an internet user protection Bill through the Parliament in Iran. That legislation would further erode online freedoms and people’s access to the global internet.

All opposition in Iran, whether it is independent political parties, trade unions, striking workers, protesters, civil society organisations or simply truth-sharing journalists, is brutally suppressed. There has never been a clearer example of an undemocratic self-claimed democracy. Political opposition frequently receives the harshest treatment from the regime, and Iran is the country responsible for the second highest number of executions each year, behind only China. Whatever people’s views on capital punishment, it cannot be acceptable that that position persists.

The House will no doubt recall the uprising that took place in September 2022, sparking nationwide protests that continue even today. I take this opportunity to honour the bravery of those people. It cannot be easy for anyone to stand up and speak for basic rights when there is a high likelihood that they or their family will be brutally targeted as a result. Following the riots, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, raised the alarm about the concerning trend of arbitrary arrests, detentions and executions targeting individuals for merely exercising their freedom of expression.

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

The hon. Member is making a brilliant speech. The dead hand of Iran is, unfortunately, everywhere; its influence and impact is incredible, and I would suggest that it is even in this place. There is an all-party parliamentary group whose secretariat is BIRD—the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. That is led by a man, Sayed Al-Wadaei, who was outed as a front leader for the promotion of Iranian foreign policy. In 2012, a man called Saeed Al-Shehabi was exposed by the London Evening Standard as part of a terrorist group with links to Iran. That organisation and those people are part of a secretariat to an APPG here, and that needs to be exposed and Members need to take action.

[Bob Blackman]

I thank the hon. Member for raising that point. That is now clearly on the record, and the House authorities will need to look at that particular issue.

Recently released figures, which I am sure will have been generously tainted by the regime, show that 870 executions took place in 2023 alone. That is a 30% increase on the previous year, and many of those people were women and children. Tens of thousands of political prisoners, the overwhelming majority being peaceful, have been arrested in Iran—arrested for merely holding a sign or removing a headscarf. Once arrested, their treatment is utterly unfathomable. Amnesty International has recently reported that the atrocities such prisoners are subjected to include being beaten, raped, gang raped and psychologically abused; the list of horrors goes on. It is truly despicable, as my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Anna Firth) said.

The plight of women remains intensely troubling. Women remain second-class citizens in Iran: they continue to receive intensified opposition from the regime; they face entrenched discrimination in both law and practice; and they are subject to domestic violence, child marriage, unequal divorce and custody rights, mandatory dress code, restricted nationality and travel rights, and unfair inheritance laws—to name but a few examples. Women in Iran have been jailed for merely singing in public or publishing their work on social media.

Perhaps even more troublingly, Iran celebrates the greatest number of female executions, beating even China on that particular front. Armita Geravand was a 16-year-old schoolgirl, who was tragically killed through the brutality of the so-called Iranian morality police. Like Mahsa Amini, her only crime was refusing to wear her hijab. Sadly, such stories are not isolated in Iran, and I am sad to say that they will continue without significant intervention from international communities and the Iranian people.

I am proud that in this House alone, we have an abundance of great women representing us; their contribution is vital and championed by us all. It is shocking that, in 2024, this is far from the case across many other parts of the globe.

Smokefree Future

Debate between Ian Paisley and Bob Blackman

Thursday 11th January 2024 Westminster Hall

[Bob Blackman]

The hon. Member is giving a very thoughtful speech about some of the consequences. Does he accept the fact that, when individuals go into a public house, they will now routinely be challenged and asked for proof of identity if they look young? The challenge is often whether they are over 21, although they could, of course, legally buy alcohol at the age of 18. Many public houses will not serve anyone under the age of 21. Does the hon. Member accept the fact that, because this is already in operation, the retailer should have the right to challenge people who look young so that they can make sure that they are only selling to people who are over the legal age to buy?

[Ian Paisley]

That is a very good point when it comes to that threshold between 17 and 21 or 22. The problem is that this generational legislation creates a conveyor belt—from 18 to 19 to 20. Eventually you will be 37 and not be allowed to buy a cigarette under the law. But, if the retailer sells it to you, whether you are a young-looking, handsome 37-year-old or an old-looking boy, you will still end up not having committed a criminal offence, even though you have, but the retailer has committed an offence for selling it to you. At that point, where do the ID checks come in?

Perhaps the intention is that there will be a time in the next five, six, seven or eight years when no one will smoke. I want to turn to that. The one issue that I have pushed hard and heavy on since becoming a Member of Parliament is the criminalisation of illicit sales of tobacco that furnish criminals’ pockets. It is that illegal crime that really worries me.

The hon. Member for Harrow East, who moved the motion today, quite rightly commented on where he thinks the level of public consumption of cigarettes is. I think that the real figure is startlingly higher, because His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs estimates that 11% of cigarette consumption and 35% of hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK comes from the illegal trade. People are buying it illicitly, either as stolen products or black market products that have been brought into the United Kingdom. This is happening in a huge number of areas, and it is fuelling criminal gangs.

That is the higher level. There are more people consuming tobacco than some people want to admit but, unfortunately, they are buying it illegally. The Government are not benefiting in terms of tax and legitimate manufacturers are not benefiting. In fact, the companies are disadvantaged because the product is sometimes stolen from their companies, or is a copy—a counterfeit—of their products.

The Government must decide whether they want tobacco to be supplied to UK consumers by a taxed and regulated private sector, as it currently is, or by the public sector as a medicine, which may be one way of doing it, or by the criminal sector, in the same way that cannabis is sold. Those are the choices that the Government ultimately face.

In my view, a generational prohibition will gradually hand even more of the UK tobacco market to organised criminal gangs, who use the money from tobacco smuggling to fund activities including terrorism, people smuggling, prostitution and all sorts of other things. That view is lifted from the US State Department’s 2015 report, “The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security”. That is why the gangs deploy such resources. When the South African Government banned the sale of tobacco during covid, illegal traders quickly stepped in. Today, 93% of tobacco sold in South Africa is illicit trade and counterfeit trade. We need to get this absolutely right or else we create a bonanza for the criminal. The sooner we do that, the better, and I am sure the Minister will consider those issues.

I do not want to criminalise shopkeepers, and I know the hon. Member for Harrow East does not want that, but that will be an unintended consequence. As people get older, it will be very difficult to judge whether they can be sold a cigarette. Shopkeepers will have to ask for ID, and we do not have ID in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, we have a form of ID in our electoral cards, but they do not carry a date of birth, although they do show that a person is over the age of 18. That would have to be changed if they were to be used in Northern Ireland.

What are the alternatives? Many retailers and others have suggested that raising the age of sale for tobacco products to 21 would be much simpler to implement and would avoid this potential negative consequence, and the nightmare of regulation. It would be far easier to implement and enforce, and would avoid the complete takeover of the UK tobacco market by criminals. I urge the Government to consider those alternatives in pursuing this incredibly important flagship policy. For the record, I do not promote smoking, but I believe in adults making choices. We have to try to solve the real problem, not create another one.

UK-Israel Trade Negotiations

Debate between Ian Paisley and Bob Blackman

Thursday 20th January 2022 Westminster Hall

[Ian Paisley (in the Chair)]

Before we begin, I remind Members that they are expected to wear a face covering when they are not speaking in the debate. This is in line with the current guidance that the House of Commons Commissioners would like to be enforced.

I also remind Members that they are asked by the House to take a covid lateral flow test before coming on to the estate. Please also give each other and members of staff space when seated, and when entering and leaving the room, where possible.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered UK and Israel trade negotiations.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Paisley, which I think is for the first time.

I declare my interest up front: I am the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Israel. In the last year, we released an excellent report, which I commend to my hon. Friend the Minister, on the health tech part of our industries. It is a very good read, which demonstrates the importance of Israel-UK negotiations and having them set up. Moreover, we are just about to release a report on research and innovation, which I also commend to him.

Israel and the UK’s partnership on the technology front extends to the fact, of course, that we have the Israel tech hub in the embassy in Tel Aviv. This morning, I was talking to the all-party parliamentary group on Romania, which wants to mirror that tech hub, demonstrating that the relationship between the UK and Israel is not only good for the UK and Israel but means that we can set up similar arrangements for like-minded countries across Europe and across the world. So I welcome the Government’s commitment to further strengthening the ties with Israel, which of course is a close friend and ally of the United Kingdom.

It is of course timely that we are having this debate, because I know that very shortly we will embark on new trade talks to enhance the UK’s trade relationship with Israel still further, which is extremely welcome.

I also thank the Backbench Business Committee, on which I sit, for granting this debate. I am not sure whether my sitting on the Committee had anything to do with it; I suspect that possibly it did. And I note that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) is here in Westminster Hall today; he has a season ticket to the Backbench Business Committee, as well. [Laughter.]

Israel is not just the sole democracy in the middle east; it is also a true global high-tech start-up powerhouse, with huge prowess in the fields of high-tech energy, medical science, fintech and cyber-security, to name but a few areas. The UK is Israel’s largest trade partner in Europe and its third largest trade partner in the world. That gives us something to aim at; we want to be Israel’s largest trade partner in the world.

Given the strength of our relationship, it is perhaps little surprise that Israel was among the first countries with which the UK agreed a free trade agreement in principle, in January 2019, on our departure from the EU. After successive record-breaking years, UK-Israel trade has remained healthy, even during the pandemic, with an estimated value of £5 billion. Whether it involves pharmaceuticals, plastics, fintech or agri-tech, the UK-Israel trade relationship covers all our major industries and has a natural focus on the technology and services of the future. That is a key reason why there are boundless opportunities for improvements in the UK-Israel trade relationship. The signing of a strategic agreement with Israel last November was an important point in the process. In our ever-strengthening bilateral relationship, that is the next step towards negotiating the full post-Brexit trade deal with our friends in Israel that we want to see.

So we are natural trade partners. As progressive liberal democracies, our nations share the same values and the same commitment to the open and free market. Israel’s business community regards the UK as the gateway to Europe. The UK is an appealing market. We have a shared language, as an estimated 85% of Israelis speak English as their first language. We are also obviously in close proximity to Israel and have an enterprising business culture.

Israeli businesses hold the UK market in the highest regard. We have seen many of them achieve great success here. I will mention one or two of them shortly. Israel’s tech ecosystem does not just provide economic benefits to our two great nations. Every day, Israeli businesses will be enriching and improving the lives of British citizens and making them healthier. A cab driver or parent on the school run uses Israeli sat-nav app Waze to efficiently complete their journey. A water engineer will be alerted to a leak in the network by Takadu, a start-up based in Tel Aviv. The cherry tomatoes that a shopper buys in the local supermarket are an invention from Israel. I could go on. Many constituents of mine are issued generic prescription drugs from their local GP surgery. These drugs are manufactured by Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva, which produces an extraordinary one in six prescription drugs used in the NHS. That fails to scratch even the surface of Israeli companies operating in the UK.

There are 500 Israeli companies operating in the UK, employing thousands of our constituents. A number of UK companies have major operations in Israel, including Barclays, Rolls-Royce, GlaxoSmithKline and Unilever. Rolls-Royce was responsible for the UK’s largest ever export deal to Israel back in 2016 when it signed a £1 billion agreement with Israeli airline El Al to provide Trent 1000 engines for El Al’s new fleet of Dreamliner aircraft. A British visitor to Israel could not fail to notice the ever-growing number of UK-manufactured cars in the Jewish state.

In terms of high tech, the rapid expansion of UK-Israel trade over the last decade has closely followed Israel’s emergence as one of the world’s leaders in high tech. Israel is now home to the highest density of start-ups anywhere in the world. That impressed me, because I thought India was. Clearly, Israel is more dense in that respect. It deservedly earns its title as the start-up nation. It is also home to the world’s major technology powerhouses, including Google, Microsoft, Intel and Motorola. I have had the privilege of visiting Israel on a number of occasions with the Conservative Friends of Israel, and the dynamism and forward-thinking nature of its high-tech sector and young entrepreneurs is palpable. I particularly remember visiting an early electrical vehicle pioneer back in 2011. Remember 2011? That was 11 years ago. As is often the case, the Israeli company was many years ahead of the market. The only thing holding it back was battery technology at the time.

Israel has achieved this success with intellectual power in the face of geographic and geo-political disadvantages, conflict and a lack of natural resources. Another reason behind Israel’s success story is that the country is an investor in research and development, spending as much as 4.9% of its GDP on R&D in 2018. That is more than double that of the UK—something else we should think about. It offers us very serious food for thought.

Increasing trade with Israel has been a long-standing UK objective. The UK-Israel tech hub, which was established at the British embassy in 2011, was the first of its kind to promote partnerships in technology and innovation between the UK and Israel. It has successfully generated hundreds of tech partnerships between the UK and Israel and is so far worth more than £85 million. It has led to the additional tech hubs in India, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil and soon Romania.

Brexit has presented us with an exciting opportunity to negotiate a bespoke UK-Israel free trade agreement. Our two nations are closer than ever and share the same values and outlook on international trade. There are endless possibilities for the UK and Israel to work together to become the world’s leading tech centres. I encourage my hon. Friend the Minister to be ambitious in the forthcoming negotiations. The trade continuity agreement, which was signed in February 2019, ensured the continuation of the trade terms covered by the EU-Israel association agreement. That should be the bare minimum we seek to negotiate in the new UK-Israel trade deal.

The International Trade Secretary said last month that her Department would be opening a public consultation on this important free trade agreement this January. We do not have long to go, so I am looking to the Minister, and I do not want to hear “soon” as an answer. Given the importance of the UK-Israel bilateral deal, I wonder whether the Minister can shed some light on the commencement date. I very much hope that the starting gun will be fired in the forthcoming days.

I know many colleagues in this place are looking forward to the UK hosting a joint innovation summit with Israel in March this year, but I wonder whether the Secretary of State has any plans to visit Israel in the near future to see for herself the many trade opportunities emerging from this tech powerhouse. I trust that she will visit and that that can kick off the negotiations properly.

My hon. Friend the Minister has spoken of the UK’s desire to expand opportunities in financial services, infrastructure and technology. Can he provide an update on the progress of these sector-specific ambitions?

The UK and Israel can boast the world’s two most successful covid-19 vaccination programmes, which is a source of great personal pride to both countries. Our beloved NHS has delivered a vaccination programme at a speed and scale that is truly the envy of the world. Israel’s digitalised healthcare system played an instrumental role in that success. The Department for International Trade has previously expressed the desire to seek a trade deal with a chapter focused on advanced digital data and technology, including med-tech. Can my hon. Friend the Minister assure me that that remains the plan? What discussions has he had with his counterpart in Israel on the subject?

Israel’s success in R&D is commendable. Will the Minister consider using free trade negotiations to explore a binational research and development programme to the mutual benefit of both countries? Israel has such a programme in place with the United States, known as BIRD—Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development—and cumulative sales of products co-developed by Israeli and American companies through BIRD have exceeded $10 billion. Given the immediate strategic challenge posed by disruptive actors on the international stage, it is more important than ever that we work with trusted allies to produce the technologies of the future.

As we move to deliver on our net zero commitments, I call on my hon. Friend the Minister to work closely with Israel. The country has been known as the superpower of sustainability. While we will not be able to recreate here the solar tower that harnesses Negev sunshine to generate electricity, we can certainly learn much from Israel’s world-leading water reuse programme to avoid future droughts. The UK and Israel boast sector-leading green-tech and agri-tech start-ups, and there are many opportunities to expand on that.

With this ambition in mind, I call on the Minister to seize the opportunity of the historic Abraham accords, which have ushered in a ground-breaking new chapter for peace in the middle east, between Israel and her neighbours in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. While the accords have been in effect for less than two years, they have already had a seismic effect on the region in terms of trade and investment, which has rapidly expanded.

The breakthrough water-for-energy deal between Jordan and Israel, brokered by the UAE, demonstrates that the peace is far-reaching and gives us, tentatively, an opportunity for proper peace in the middle east. I hope the UK will actively consider the ways in which we can support these new links, and use our own strong relationships in the region to further build on the Abraham accords.

There are challenges. The Government have prioritised the relationship with Israel and have put in place frameworks to stimulate collaboration, but there is much more we can do to ensure that Israeli companies make the UK their natural first stop internationally to trial and scale their products.

I had the pleasure of releasing “A shot in the arm: Israel and UK healthtech innovation”, a report from the all-party Britain-Israel parliamentary group and UK Israel Business. The report identified several impediments that face Israeli health-tech companies seeking to enter the UK market. Many of the proposals would also work across different sectors. For example, the report recommends creating new UK-based landing pads to assist Israeli companies touching down in the United Kingdom, which should include advice on how best to position their value proposition and achieve adoption at pace and scale in the UK.

Another challenge facing Israeli start-ups is the constraints imposed by short-term visas. We contend that as part of the Israel-UK landing pad, start-ups selected and incubated through the scheme should be automatically awarded a start-up visa as part of the scheme. A visa awarded to landing pad companies would be time-bound by the landing pad programme horizon—a scheme that already takes into account other critical factors such as capital requirements, pilot testing and scale horizons. Will the Minister take the time to read the report, consider its recommendations and, I hope, act upon them?

While there is much to celebrate in our burgeoning trade relationship with Israel, it would be remiss of me not to quickly touch on the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement—or BDS, as it is more commonly known. Simply put, BDS is a harmful, politically-motivated campaign that seeks to delegitimise Israel. BDS does nothing to advance the Palestinian cause; in actuality, it is anti-peace. I applaud the Government for their rejection of BDS and their clear commitment to ever-greater trade with Israel.

The fact that many of those targeting Israel with economic boycotts also actively seek to extend their harmful boycotts to those in the cultural and educational spheres says everything we need to know. It is unthinkable to me that anyone could seek to minimise collaboration between UK and Israeli scientists tackling some of the greatest health challenges facing our societies, such as Alzheimer’s, covid-19 and Parkinson’s disease.

It is deeply regrettable that Ben & Jerry’s—the ice cream makers owned by British company Unilever—has engaged in its own recent boycott of Israel; the controversial move rightly provoked strong condemnation. I call on Unilever to challenge such harmful measures.

The Government’s forthcoming legislation to stop public bodies across the UK discriminating on grounds of country and territory of origin must feature provisions to prevent procurement policy being used as a tool of foreign policy or an attempt to regulate international trade. Legislating on this important manifesto commitment will be warmly welcomed by many of my constituents, and I call on the Minister to work closely with colleagues in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to counter discriminatory policies that are harmful not only to community cohesion here in the UK but to the UK’s trade interests and foreign policy goals. I commend the UK Government’s response to BDS, which has been to seek ever-closer economic relations with Israel. Now is the time to go one step further and ensure that the principles of fairness and non-discrimination are enshrined at the heart of the UK’s public procurement regime.

Having experienced a decade of record-breaking growth in trade, the United Kingdom and Israel are natural partners across a wide range of innovative fields—from financial to agricultural technology, spanning government, the private sector and higher education. We therefore have before us an invaluable opportunity to reshape our trading relationship for the future. The UK-Israel trade deal is much anticipated for its many important economic benefits, but it also presents an opportunity for the UK to expand its ever-tightening relationship with a close ally. Given Israel’s status as a world-leading tech power, it is important for the UK to make the most of the many advantages of the trade deal by taking an ambitious approach to trade negotiations.

Done right, this deal could serve as a model for UK partnerships with other advanced, innovation-intensive states, including South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. My colleagues and I stand ready to support work on an enhanced trade agreement. I hope that the Minister can assure me and my hon. Friends that the call for input is about to begin, and that we can look forward to an excellent free trade deal with our friends in Israel.

Tobacco Control Plan

Debate between Ian Paisley and Bob Blackman

Tuesday 16th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Bob Blackman]

My hon. Friend is quite right. Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs on the market, if not the most addictive, and perfectly legal to consume. The issue is whether someone, once addicted to nicotine, can quit. The damage is done not necessary by the nicotine, but by the delivery mechanism by which someone gets the nicotine.

Anything that reduces the risk of cancer or other related diseases has got to be good news. We can migrate people and encourage them to quit. Ideally, they give up completely. However, because it is so addictive they may need help and assistance to do that. Vaping and non-heated tobacco are ways of migrating people to safer means of delivering the nicotine they desire.

Taking up the point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison), ending smoking is essential if we are to level up the nation’s health after the pandemic. We need to reduce health inequalities between rich and poor, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035, in line with the Government’s manifesto commitments.

As well as being necessary, tobacco control measures are popular with voters for every main party, including the Conservative party, which both my hon. Friend the Minister and I represent. Results from the annual YouGov survey of over 10,000 adults in England, funded by Action on Smoking and Health, show that more than three quarters of the public support the Government’s smoke-free 2030 ambition, and eight out of 10 members of the public support Government intervention to limit smoking.

The Government have the full support of the APPG in delivering the smoke-free 2030 ambition. However, as the Government stated in the 2019 prevention Green Paper, achieving that ambition will require “bold action.” Inequalities in smoking rates have grown in recent years, not shrunk. In order to be smoke-free by 2030, we need to reduce smoking by two thirds in just a decade—we have only nine years left to achieve that—and by three quarters for smokers in routine and manual occupations. At current rates of decline, Cancer Research UK has estimated we will miss the target by seven years, and double that for the poorest in society.

There are still nearly 6 million smokers in England. We will only achieve a smoke-free 2030 by motivating more smokers to make quit attempts, using the most effective quitting aids, while also reducing the number of children and young adults who start smoking each year. With 1,500 people dying from smoking-related diseases every week and less than a decade to achieve a smoke-free 2030, there is no time to waste.

Disappointingly, with the end of the year in sight, there is still no sign of the tobacco control plan that was promised this year. My first question to my hon. Friend the Minister, therefore, is whether she can she set out a timeline for the publication of the next tobacco control plan. But the tobacco control plan is only as strong as the measures it includes. That is why the APPG was disappointed that the Government rejected the amendments to the Health and Care Bill tabled by my friend the hon. Member for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy), and supported by myself and other officers of the APPG, in Committee.

Those amendments would have closed the loopholes in the regulations that expose children to the insidious marketing tactics of the tobacco industry, provided funding for tobacco control and strengthened the regulation of tobacco. As it stands, the Bill fails to include a single mention of smoking or tobacco and represents a major missed opportunity to introduce key policies for achieving a smoke-free 2030. That is why we have retabled the amendments on Report. I hope the Government will look at them sympathetically, because the Bill is the ideal opportunity for them to deliver their 2019 commitment to finish the job and introduce the legislation that is needed if we are to achieve a smoke-free 2030. My second question is whether the Minister will commit to considering the adoption of tobacco amendments to the Health and Care Bill on Report.

My next area is the “polluter pays” levy. The bold action that the Government acknowledge is needed cannot be taken without investment. The Health Foundation estimates that a minimum £1 billion is needed to restore public health funding to its 2015 levels, with more needed to level up public health across the country. While there was some positive news on tobacco taxation in the recent spending review, which we welcomed, unfortunately the Government opted not to increase the public health grant to local authorities. As a consequence, we need to establish new sources of funding.

The Government promised to consider a US-style “polluter pays” levy on tobacco manufacturers in the 2019 prevention Green Paper. This scheme would mirror the approach taken in the United States, where user fee legislation raises $711 million annually from the tobacco manufacturers, with the funds then used to cover the cost of stop smoking campaigns, tobacco control policy development, implementation and enforcement.

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

I must say that I am opposed to punitive taxation policies, because I do not think they work. Does the hon. Member accept that tobacco companies already pay the Government £13 billion? An additional levy could lead—and most likely would lead, as the evidence shows—to a significant increase in criminality, because instead of paying for taxable product, people will buy smuggled product. Is that not a huge worry that he has about introducing a levy?

[Bob Blackman]

I will come to some of these issues in a few moments, if the hon. Gentleman will be patient and let me build the case. Obviously, it has been estimated by ASH that the funding needed for a comprehensive tobacco control plan to deliver a smoke-free 2030 would cost around £266 million for England and £315 million in total for the UK. A levy could raise around £700 million from the tobacco manufacturers, to be spent on tobacco control and other public health initiatives. The devolved Governments would also have the ability to opt into the scheme, should they so wish.

Such a scheme is more than justified in response to market failure that allows an industry, whose products kill consumers when used as intended, to make exorbitant profits. While net operating profits for most consumer staples, such as food, beverages and household goods, stands at 12% to 20%, Imperial Brands in the UK enjoyed net operating profits of 71% in 2019. That is £71 in profit for every £100 in sales. In 2018, it is estimated that tobacco manufacturers made over £900 million in profits in the UK alone.

Equitable Life

Debate between Ian Paisley and Bob Blackman

Thursday 26th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House congratulates the Government on providing a scheme to compensate victims of the Equitable Life scandal; welcomes the Government’s acceptance of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s findings in full; notes that the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended that policyholders should be put back in the position they would have been in had maladministration not occurred; further notes that most victims have only received partial compensation compared to the confirmed losses; and calls on the Government to make a commitment to provide full compensation during the lifetime of the next Parliament as the economy and public finances continue to recover.

In the run-up to the 2010 general election, the Conservative party discouraged candidates from signing any pledges, with one or two notable exceptions, the most notable being that of seeking justice for Equitable Life policyholders. Having done some research, I was very proud and pleased to sign that pledge. After I was successfully elected, I was immediately elevated to become co-chairman of the all-party group on Equitable Life policyholders. I am pleased to be able to report that we now have more than 200 members. That demonstrates what an important issue this is for people in this House and beyond.

It is important that we look at what is different about Equitable Life policyholders compared with those in other such schemes. With the advent of private pensions and the encouragement of individuals to save for their future retirement, Equitable Life developed an almost Ponzi-like scheme whereby its representatives went out and sold policies for which they promised bonuses and pensions that were beyond belief, and people were convinced to sign up for them. When that was reported to the regulator and the Treasury, they took no action whatsoever. This was all very well while money was coming into the pot, but eventually the amount coming in would be less than that going out, and therefore the scheme would collapse. The scheme therefore became too big to fail, because had it failed, the Government of the day, of whichever party, would have had to pick up the full cost of compensation to the policyholders.

The whole scandal was covered up during the scheme’s entire period of 20 years. A position was reached of a cosy relationship between the company, the regulator and the Government whereby they would not unveil the situation. The Equitable Members Action Group had to drag the Government through the courts. Eventually, in 2004, we had the publication of the Penrose report, which made recommendations about the position of Equitable Life. That was not good enough, because it did not do anything to compensate the people who had suffered. Then the parliamentary ombudsman made clear recommendations that the policyholders needed to be moved from the position where they had suffered a relative loss back to the position they would have been in had maladministration not occurred. That was very important. Equally, the ombudsman accepted that it would be appropriate to consider the potential impact on the public purse of any payment of compensation.

I am delighted that almost the first legislative step by the coalition Government was to put in place a scheme to compensate the individuals who had suffered a relative loss. We had argued in this Chamber for justice for those policyholders. There are various types of policyholders who have received different types of compensation. The first—

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Bob Blackman]

I am sure that my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary is listening, but she will clearly not announce the Budget measures today. After this debate, however, I will seek a clear commitment from the political parties about what they will do if elected to government on 7 May. Although it would be welcome if the Chancellor stood up at the Dispatch Box and agreed a full compensation package, the key issue is that if he cannot do so in this Budget, Members and people outside the House will want to know what the political parties would do to compensate those who have suffered.

[Ian Paisley]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on getting this matter on to the Floor of the House. He is in danger of being canonised by the many thousands of people in Northern Ireland who are watching this debate closely because of how unfairly they have been affected. I hope that those on the Treasury Bench are listening to the points that Members have raised.

There have been announcements this week about the bonuses to be paid to bankers in banks controlled by the public purse, and some bankers have taken the personal decision to refuse bonuses if they so wish. At least they have the choice. The people who have suffered under Equitable Life have not got a choice. I hope that Treasury Ministers are listening, and recognise that if they want the future support of Opposition Members, they should address this issue before the end of this term.

[Bob Blackman]

I will call the hon. Gentleman my honourable Friend because he has been stalwart in defending the rights of the people of Northern Ireland who have suffered in this scheme.

The key point is that, according to the published figures, the Treasury had a surplus of £8.8 billion in January, which was remarkable given that we were expecting £6.5 billion. Some proportion of the additional £2 billion surplus could be put towards compensation for policyholders who have suffered.

Tobacco Packaging

Debate between Ian Paisley and Bob Blackman

Thursday 7th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman]

I agree completely. That demonstrates the failure of the tobacco industry to stop the illicit trade, even under the current advertising arrangements for packaging.

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

The hon. Gentleman will know that more than 1,000 people in my constituency are directly employed by the tobacco industry, which creates huge employment opportunities for my constituents. Why will he not just be honest and say that we should ban smoking altogether and make it illegal? That is the direction of travel he is taking. We are hearing all this nonsense about different colours, subliminal messages and messages written on cigarettes; let us cut the nonsense. Why will he not be honest with the House and say that he wants to ban smoking altogether?

[Bob Blackman]

I am not one of those who wants to ban particular substances. If someone wants to put a cigarette in their mouth, set light to it and attempt to kill themselves, that is their choice. They have the freedom to do so. All I say is, “Don’t breathe that smoke over me, don’t breathe it over children, don’t inflict it on others.”