Tobacco Packaging

Debate between Kevin Barron and Angela Watkinson

Thursday 7th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barron]

And another 207,000 nationally will start this habit a year.

One might ask why people buy a packet of cigarettes when it has a warning on it, but this is an addiction. All sorts of addictions sadly roll over common sense, and tobacco is no different. Stopping young people starting is crucial, and that is working. Smoking rates for young children are diminishing now, as are rates for adults, partly as a result of taxation and partly because we are stopping tobacco companies promoting cigarettes.

There are no figures to show that counterfeiting is more likely with plain packaging. Earlier this year, the Japanese company came to the House and told us that there would be more counterfeiting, but there is no evidence of that. It showed us—I have one in my pocket —a counterfeit packet. It looks like any other Benson & Hedges packet, so counterfeiting happens now. Standard packaging could include features to protect against counterfeiting, and it is for the House to regulate to introduce them. Hon. Members should not use the arguments that have been sold by the tobacco companies year after year. When it was found that tobacco related to massive numbers of deaths, the companies were still questioning that decades after the event—they still do now. They use this House to do it on occasions and, I have to say, it is wrong. When there are 100,000 premature deaths a year, we as legislators have some responsibility to alleviate the problem. I know that smoking is addictive and it is difficult for people to stop.

[Dame Angela Watkinson]

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that no young child can become addicted to cigarettes unless their parents provide them with the money to buy them?

[Mr Barron]

My father used to provide me with cigarettes; the only thing was that he did not know about it. I used to go in his packet of Woodbines and take one out, and he did not count them very often. That was how I started smoking on the street at a very early age. If we put the price up, of course it will reduce the consumption of cigarettes, but we need to stop young people starting.