Benjamin Butterworth and the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum

In exactly two weeks delegates and speakers from around the world will gather in Seoul, South Korea, for the annual Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum.

Launched in 2008 as the Global Tobacco Networking Forum, GTNF is arguably the most important tobacco industry funded conference in the world, bringing together a range of stakeholders including industry, investors, and even some public health officials.

The change of name, in 2015, reflected the industry’s increasing focus on reduced risk nicotine products, notably e-cigarettes, and in 2017 the event was even used to promote the PMI-funded Foundation for a Smoke Free World.

Today the conference is organised by the GTNF Trust, a division of the US-based Tobacco Merchants Association (TMA), which also publishes Tobacco Reporter, ‘the oldest tobacco industry trade publication in the United States’, and Vapor Voice magazines.

Sadly, I won’t be at GTNF this year but I know someone who will. More on that in a minute but, first, let’s rewind.

Seven weeks ago, at the Forest Summer Lunch & Awards, I was delighted to present a Voices of Freedom Award to Reem Ibrahim (above).

Having enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence as a political commentator, Reem is now a familiar face on GB News, TalkTV, and even the BBC (Politics Live).

The week after she received her award at Boisdale of Belgravia, she was on The Saturday Five on GB News.

The Saturday Five features GB News presenters Darren Grimes and Emily Carver, two regular guests, and an invited guest who 'discuss and debate the spikiest stories and craziest controversies of the week'.

In the course of the programme presenters and guests each kick start a topical debate by delivering a short monologue direct to camera.

On July 29, citing the IEA's Nanny State Index, Reem (the invited guest) declared, “Imagine living in a world in which the government dictates what you drink, what you eat, what you smoke, even the amount of sugar that you're allowed in your Coke Zero.”

“Fundamentally,” she argued, “it's about health and lifestyle choices. I know that when I smoke a cigarette it's bad for me. The government don't need to tell me that. They don't need to hike up prices so that it's really difficult for me to be able to afford those cigarettes. I know that it's bad.”

And how did her fellow guest, journalist and commentator Benjamin Butterworth, respond?

“It's important to note that you are in the pocket of the pro-smoking lobby,” he told her. “They've given you an award, they give you slap-up free dinners and wine. It's important,” he repeated, “to note that.”

To her credit, Reem laughed and said, “That is a ludicrous argument.”

But that, dear reader, is only half the story because I can now reveal (cue drum roll) that Benjamin Butterworth was recently confirmed as a speaker at the 2023 Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Seoul.

To put this in perspective, the value of the Forest lunch at Boisdale was about £150 per guest (including pre-lunch drinks). The three night delegate package at GTNF 2023 costs $4,500 per person (approximately £3,500).

Return flights from London to Seoul vary enormously but I've seen them priced from £610 to almost £4,000 (and that’s just in economy).

If you add the fare to the delegate package, the overall cost of attending GTNF 2023 will be at least £4,000, and probably more.

As a speaker Butterworth will receive a complimentary speaker/delegate package (including accommodation, food and drink), plus travel costs.

The GTNF package, which I've enjoyed gratis many times myself, normally includes a welcome reception (with wine!) and an awards dinner (more wine!), paid for by sponsors, some of them tobacco companies.

It seems a bit rich, then, for Butterworth to point the finger at a fellow political commentator for accepting hospitality from the “pro-smoking (sic) lobby” when, a few weeks later, he will be enjoying similar hospitality at another, much larger, tobacco industry funded event.

Pot, kettle, black?

To be clear, I’m not criticising Butterworth’s decision to attend GTNF because, in my view, there’s nothing wrong with accepting an invitation to speak at a tobacco industry funded event, or the hospitality that goes with it.

In fact, I applaud anyone who is open-minded enough to join the discussion. So bravo, Benjamin, you’ve gone up in my estimation!

Nevertheless, that comment on GB News was out of order, not least because Forest presented Reem Ibrahim with an award after we became aware of her pro-choice, anti-nanny state views. Any suggestion that her opinions may have been influenced, either by the award or the lunch that accompanied it, is absurd.

I should add that in March Reem also joined a panel of speakers at a Forest event at the Institute of Economic Affairs. The other panellists were the IEA’s Chris Snowdon, Kara Kennedy (The Spectator), and Henry Hill (ConservativeHome).

After the event we took all four speakers to dinner because not only was it the hospitable thing to do, it’s not uncommon for event organisers to thank speakers in that way.

If Benjamin Butterworth truly thinks Reem is "in the pocket of the pro-smoking (sic) lobby" then Chris, Kara and Henry (who have similar views on smoking) must be too because that’s how this works, right?

The question that’s really nagging me, though, is this. Why has a journalist with very little history of writing about smoking or tobacco control been invited to speak at a major tobacco industry funded conference?

I asked the organisers and I was told that Butterworth is on a ‘Meet the Press’ panel that has been chosen to represent a range of opinions, including (I inferred) some that may be critical of the tobacco companies.

Fair enough, it’s important to have a variety of views, and good to hold the tobacco industry to account, if that is Butterworth’s role. A better fit, though, might have been someone like Oliver Barnes, the FT's leisure industries correspondent who ‘covers hospitality, gambling, tourism, tobacco and cannabis companies’. Was he invited?

The issue, however, is not that Benjamin Butterworth is going to GTNF. As I’ve made clear, I have no problem with that, and I’m sure he will be an entertaining speaker.

My beef is that he tried to undermine a fellow commentator’s genuinely held opinions about the nanny state with a jibe about receiving “slap up free dinners and wine” from the “pro-smoking lobby”. Is it too much to ask that he might have credited Reem Ibrahim with the same integrity he no doubt expects to be accorded himself?

Unfortunately barbs about funding and hospitality are not uncommon in debates about lifestyle issues. Those who criticise the nanny state and support ‘unfashionable’ causes like smokers’ rights are often targets for this sort of attack, but I held the same views about smoking long before I worked for Forest, and I will hold them long after I’ve enjoyed my final tobacco industry funded lunch or dinner.

Nevertheless, I genuinely hope Benjamin Butterworth enjoys the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Seoul. As I have noted before, some of my favourite moments working for Forest have been at GTNF, so I don’t begrudge him the experience at all.

At the very least, perhaps he will return with a less jaundiced view of people who oppose nanny state measures and accept tobacco industry funded hospitality - people, in fact, like my former colleague and Hands Off Our Packs spokesman Angela Harbutt who I understand is also on the ‘Meet the Press’ panel!

I hope too that he accepts the special award we are minded to give him at next year’s Forest Summer Lunch. But if he can’t or won’t receive it in person, I know someone who will be very happy to accept it on his behalf …

PS. In September last year, following the appointment of Thérèse Coffey as Secretary of State for Health, Benjamin Butterworth tweeted:

Serious question: is it really appropriate to have an overweight smoker as health secretary?

The tweet was subsequently deleted, as I noted here, but not before Lord Moylan responded by tweeting:

Thank God there are some freedom lovers and smokers in the Cabinet. We have enough Puritans outside it.

Serious question: is Benjamin Butterworth a Puritan or a freedom lover? Watch this space.

Update: The GTNF agenda has now been published online (September 8) and the full panel for 'Meet the Press' (which is also the final session before conference ends) is:

Benjamin Butterworth, senior reporter for iNews and media commentator
Angela Harbutt, consultant
Sanjay Kumar, journalist at The Korea Herald
David Maddox, political editor at Express Online
Steffy Thevar, senior correspondent at The Times of India

Comments

[Rose2]

From my observations, a Puritan, he seems determined to disagree with everyone no matter what their opinion is and very proud and smug when he feels he has.

A very annoying person.

[Simon]

Haha. That’s the award we are minded to give him - Most Annoying Person.