According to The Times today:
A vaping levy has been denounced by free-marketeers, smokers’ rights lobbyists and the vaping industry but, unusually, welcomed by both public health campaigners and the tobacco industry.
The ‘smokers’ rights lobbyists’ referred to are Forest but for some reason (lack of space, I’ve been told) our actual quote (solicited by the paper) was omitted.
For the record, it read:
"If the government is serious about promoting e-cigarettes as a substantially less harmful alternative to combustible tobacco, a levy on vapes will send completely the wrong message to consumers.
"Vaping products are already subject to VAT. Imposing even a small levy will simply add to the confusion that exists in many smokers' minds about the risks of vaping.
"Worse, if the government hikes tobacco duty again to maintain the difference in price between tobacco and vapes, that will inevitably drive more smokers to the black market.
"Both measures would therefore be counterproductive and an unnecessary own goal."
Oddly enough, the day after Rishi Sunak announced he intended to introduce a generational tobacco sales ban, The Times ran a story headlined 'Smoking ban plan burns Big Tobacco'.
According to that report:
The tobacco industry and associated lobby groups denounced the government’s plan, warning that it would benefit the illicit market.
‘Associated lobby groups’ was another oblique reference to Forest and it followed a 5-10 minute conversation I had with one of the paper’s journalists that I assumed was on the record.
Despite that, Forest wasn’t mentioned by name, nor was anything I said quoted directly in the piece.
Now, five months later, it’s happened again which begs the question: why the aversion to mentioning Forest by name?
It can’t just be a lack of space, can it?