‘Tobacco barons got Minister sacked’

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 8

‘Tobacco barons got Minister sacked’

NZPA London The London “Observer” newspaper said ' yesterday that the recent sacking of a Health Minister and the removal of two key members of the department were owing to pressure applied by the tobacco industry.

It said that as a result of these moves by . the Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher) the Government’s anti-smoking health campaign is likely to be “modified.” “The transfer of Patrick Jenkin to Industry, Sir George Young to the Department of the Environment, and the sacking of the Scottish Health Minister, Russel Fairgrieve, are seen in Whitehall as evidence of the success of the tobacco barons’ defensive campaign,” said the “Observer” in a front-page report.

“I never knew the tobacco industry was so powerful,” the “Observer” quoted one top civil servant as saying.

“It’s just like a change of government,” said another, commenting on the replacement of -anti-smoking campaigner Sir George Young as parliamentary Under-Secre-tary of State. The “Observer” .said the first sighs of pressure by Government officials on Sir George was 12 months ago when he was put in charge of negotiations between the Government and the tobacco industry on the latest voluntary agreement on advertising.

The paper said that Sir George was warned by Conservative whips that if the companies were driven too far against the wall the industry’s support for the party would be in jeopardy. The tobacco industry spends more than SNZ227 million on advertising, a fair slice of which goes on sport and other forms of sponsorship.

But Mr Jenkin and Sir George were threatening to

restrain this escape route, which was the most convenient way of getting around the ban on television advertising.

It was proposed that, the tobacco companies would only be allowed to use house names in sponsorship events. So instead of the John Player League in cricket, it would be the Imperial League and instead of Benson and Hedges tennis, it would be Gallagher’s tennis. The “Observer” said that in July there was an informal conversation at a Downing Street reception between the Prime Minister’s husband and the Minister of State for Health, Dr Gerard Vaughan, in which Mr Thatcher suggested that the Health Ministers should realise that sport would be hard hit if tobacco sponsorship were threatened. The paper said Dr Vaughan reported the conversation to the department and recommended that Ministers should take a more relaxed view about the issue.