All washed up

“Events, dear boy, events.”

That was Harold Macmillan’s famous reply when asked what was the greatest challenge he faced as a statesman.

The same is arguably true for lobbyists.

On Tuesday Forest hosted a lunch at Boisdale to bring together opponents of the generational smoking ban. Although the odds seem stacked against us, we wanted to go down fighting.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was progressing through Parliament but having gone to the Committee stage it still had to go through the Report stage, and then the third reading in the House of Commons when we were hoping more Tory MPs would oppose the ban.

After that the Bill had to go through a similar process in the House of Lords, before returning to the Commons for the final vote.

That, we estimated, could take several weeks and there was at least the possibility of further debate with more MPs speaking out against the Bill, as Sir Philip Davies did this week.

Instead, the announcement yesterday of a general election on July 4 is almost certainly not good news for anyone opposed to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

Hopes that it might fall through lack of time before Parliament is dissolved next week (May 30) were quickly dashed.

This is because we now enter a period known as ‘wash up’ when unfinished business, like the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, is rushed through before dissolution.

As the Telegraph reports here:

Wash-up involves deals taking place between party whips about which Bills are nodded through and the legislation that will be dropped …

With the agreement of both major political parties, legislation that could be introduced prior to the election includes the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which would increase the smoking age by one year every year as well as banning disposable vapes.

Conceivably, therefore, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill could become law without another shot being fired by opponents of the Bill.

Meanwhile, the Government last night issued a list of its alleged ‘achievements’ and there, at the bottom, it read, ‘Ensured the next generation grows up smoke free’.

Does that sound like a Government that is about to let the Tobacco and Vapes Bill fall?

What it clearly suggests is that there will be a back room deal with Labour to fast track the Bill without further scrutiny or debate before the dissolution next week.

It’s an extraordinary situation and the only thing that might derail it is if Labour was to unexpectedly refuse to support the (Tory) Bill and reintroduce it as a Labour Bill (and therefore take the ‘credit’) when they are in government after the election.

But that’s probably grasping at straws, and who’s to say a Labour tobacco control bill wouldn’t be even worse?

As I said in my introductory comments at Boisdale on Tuesday, “You couldn’t make it up”.

See: Food for thought (Tobacco Reporter)

Update: According to the BBC (12:18):

Rishi Sunak’s big plan to create a smoke-free generation seems to have been ditched but is likely to become a Tory manifesto pledge.

The legislation has not gone far enough in its journey through Parliament to make it through by tomorrow evening, when MPs and Lords pack up for the election.

Bills making the cut are the Digital Markets Bill, Post Office Offences Bill, Media Bill and the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which includes the compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal. Details are still being thrashed out on that.

This is all to be confirmed by Commons leader Penny Mordaunt at around 13:00 BST.

Fingers crossed.

Comments

[Matthew Day]

Only way to challenge this will be through the courts. Maybe time to start a crowd funding campaign.