Jeremy Hunt: how he will be remembered

This still makes me laugh.

The reference to the man who brought in plain packaging is entirely coincidental.

H/T Guido Fawkes

The Tory MPs who sided with Labour to support the theft of intellectual property

Several people have asked me to name the 122 Tory MPs who joined forces with Labour and supported plain packaging.

Delighted to name and shame the following:

Aldous, Peter
Andrew, Stuart
Baldry, Tony
Barclay, Stephen
Barwell, Gavin
Benyon, Richard
Berry, Jake
Blackman, Bob
Blunt, Crispin
Brazier, Julian
Brine, Steve
Brokenshire, James
Bruce, Fiona
Buckland, Robert
Burns, Simon
Burrowes, David
Burt, Alistair
Cameron, David
Chishti, Rehman
Clark, Greg
Cox, Geoffrey
Crouch, Tracey
Dorries, Nadine
Ellis, Michael
Ellison, Jane
Ellwood, Tobias
Evennett, David
Freeman, George
Freer, Mike
Gibb, Nick
Gillan, Cheryl
Glen, John
Goodwill, Robert
Gove, Michael
Graham, Richard
Greening, Justine
Gyimah, Sam
Hague, William
Hammond, Stephen
Haselhurst, Sir Alan
Heald, Oliver
Hinds, Damian
Hopkins, Kris
Howell, John
Hurd, Nick
Jackson, Stewart
James, Margot
Jenrick, Robert
Johnson, Jo
Jones, Andrew
Jones, David
Kelly, Chris
Lancaster, Mark
Lansley, Andrew
Latham, Pauline
Leadsom, Andrea
Lee, Phillip
Lefroy, Jeremy
Leslie, Charlotte
Letwin, Oliver
Lewis, Brandon
Lilley, Peter
Lopresti, Jack
Luff, Peter
Lumley, Karen
McCartney, Jason
McLoughlin, Patrick
Maynard, Paul
Menzies, Mark
Miller, Maria
Milton, Anne
Mitchell, Andrew
Mordaunt, Penny
Morgan, Nicky
Morris, James
Murrison, Dr Andrew
Newton, Sarah
Nokes, Caroline
Norman, Jesse
O'Brien, Stephen
Offord, Matthew
Opperman, Guy
Osborne, George
Penrose, John
Phillips, Stephen
Pickles, Eric
Poulter, Daniel
Pritchard, Mark
Raab, Dominic
Robertson, Hugh
Rutley, David
Scott, Lee
Selous, Andrew
Shelbrooke, Alec
Shepherd, Sir Richard
Simpson, Keith
Smith, Chloe
Smith, Henry
Smith, Julian
Soames, Nicholas
Soubry, Anna
Spelman, Caroline
Stanley, Sir John
Streeter, Gary
Stride, Mel
Swayne, Desmond
Tapsell, Sir Peter
Timpson, Edward
Tomlinson, Justin
Tredinnick, David
Vara, Shailesh
Vickers, Martin
Villiers, Theresa
Walker, Robin
White, Chris
Willetts, David
Williamson, Gavin
Wilson, Rob
Wollaston, Dr Sarah
Wright, Jeremy
Young, Sir George

The Conservative MPs who defied a Conservative-led government

Here are the 104 Conservative MPs voted against plain packaging of tobacco in today's vote.

Adams, Nigel
Amess, David
Baker, Steve
Baldwin, Harriett
Bebb, Guto
Bellingham, Henry
Bingham, Andrew
Bone, Peter
Bradley, Karen
Brady, Graham
Bray, Angie
Bridgen, Andrew
Burley, Aidan
Burns, Conor
Chope, Christopher
Clarke, Kenneth
Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey
Coffey, Thérèse
Collins, Damian
Davies, David
Davies, Glyn
de Bois, Nick
Dinenage, Caroline
Djanogly, Jonathan
Doyle-Price, Jackie
Drax, Richard
Duddridge, James
Duncan, Alan
Elphicke, Charlie
Evans, Jonathan
Evans, Nigel
Fabricant, Michael
Field, Mark
Fox, Liam
Francois, Mark
Fuller, Richard
Garnier, Edward
Garnier, Mark
Gray, James
Grayling, Chris
Green, Damian
Gummer, Ben
Halfon, Robert
Hands, Greg
Harper, Mark
Harrington, Richard
Hart, Simon
Hayes, John
Heaton-Harris, Chris
Henderson, Gordon
Hendry, Charles
Herbert, Nick
Hollingbery, George
Hollobone, Philip
Howarth, Gerald
Jenkin, Bernard
Johnson, Gareth
Kawczynski, Daniel
Kirby, Simon
Knight, Greg
Kwarteng, Kwasi
Leigh, Edward
Lewis, Julian
Liddell-Grainger, Ian
Macleod, Mary
Main, Anne
McCartney, Karl
McIntosh, Anne
McVey, Esther
Metcalfe, Stephen
Mills, Nigel
Morris, David
Mosley, Stephen
Murray, Sheryll
Neill, Robert
Nuttall, David
Ottaway, Richard
Paice, James
Parish, Neil
Pawsey, Mark
Percy, Andrew
Pincher, Christopher
Prisk, Mark
Redwood, John
Rees-Mogg, Jacob
Robathan, Andrew
Rosindell, Andrew
Skidmore, Chris
Spencer, Mark
Stevenson, John
Stewart, Bob
Stewart, Iain
Sturdy, Julian
Syms, Robert
Truss, Elizabeth
Tyrie, Andrew
Uppal, Paul
Walker, Charles
Wallace, Ben
Watkinson, Angela
Wheeler, Heather
Whittaker, Craig
Whittingdale, John
Wiggin, Bill

We may have lost the vote but they deserve our thanks.

See previous post, MPs vote in favour of plain packaging: 122 Conservative MPs voted for plain packs which means that fewer than a half of all Tory MPs voted in favour.

Update on Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 18:26 by Simon Clark

More info.

The 104 Tory MPs were joined by three members of the Labour party, two Liberal Democrats, both Ukip MPs, and two members of the DUP.

The three Labour MPs were: Stephen Hepburn, Alan Meale and Gerry Sutcliffe.

From the Lib Dems Jeremy Browne and Simon Hughes voted against.

The two DUP MPs who voted against were Ian Paisley Junior and Sammy Wilson.

Both UKIP MPs (Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless) voted against.

MPs vote in favour of plain packaging

Further to my previous post BBC News has just reported that:

MPs have voted by a majority of 254 in favour of plain packaging of tobacco. Some 367 were in favour with 113 against in the free vote.

See MPs back standardised cigarette packaging (BBC News).

Forest's response:

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said:

"The Government has ignored a substantial backbench rebellion and the views of hundreds of thousands of people who opposed, by big majorities, plain packaging in two public consultations.

"Consumers are fed up being patronised by politicians of all parties. Smokers know there are health risks associated with tobacco. Plain packaging won't make any difference to adults or to children.

"What next? Standardised packaging for alcohol and sugary drinks?"

Most interest, I suspect, will be on the tobacco companies' next move. I imagine it will be similar to Ireland:

Three companies threaten legal action against new plain packaging laws (BreakingNews.ie)

Update: Given the circumstances I'm pretty happy with the level of opposition to plain packaging. It may have been a big majority but don't forget that Labour MPs had been whipped to vote in favour.

A dozen were expected to rebel and vote against so that leaves 100 or so Tory MPs who voted against.

That means one third of the parliamentary party voted against a Conservative-led government, which is not a bad result.

Update: 122 Tory MPs voted in favour of plain packaging, 104 against. That means that fewer than half of all Conservative MPs voted for plain packaging.

No Smoking Day and plain packaging legislation: happy coincidence?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist but ...

Is anyone surprised that today's vote on plain packaging legislation just happened to coincide with No Smoking Day?

Call me an anorak but the curious thing is this: if it's coincidence how come Cancer Research was confident enough to book, in January, online advertising space for the days leading up to NSD?

No Smoking Day is run by the British Heart Foundation not CRUK so it's unlikely the space was booked to promote another organisation's event. Instead CRUK has been promoting the 'facts' about standardised packaging.

They even placed an ad at a London Underground station (Westminster?) but when that was booked I don't know.

Nevertheless there has clearly been a lot of pre-planning but who knew MPs would vote on plain packaging on March 11?

Public health minister Jane Ellison only announced in February that the government was going ahead with legislation so was it a lucky punt by CRUK or did they know something we didn't?

Inevitably NSD has been overshadowed by today's vote but I've still been asked to talk about it on a couple of local radio stations.

Yesterday I also spoke to the Cambridge News which quoted me today in this article, National No Smoking Day: where should we be allowed to smoke?.

Anyway, plain packaging. MPs had three hours to vote for and against. The result is due around 4.00 or 7.00pm so watch this space.

We expect a large majority in favour. Eighty to 100 Tory MPs are thought to be against the measure but will they bother to vote when they know they're going to lose? Some have prior commitments in their constituencies and at least one is thought to be at the Cheltenham Festival!

This morning I did an interview for the BBC News Channel. I was joined in the studio at New Broadcasting House by ASH CEO Deborah Arnott. This was our first meeting since a rather frosty encounter last year. She was in a far better mood today, although I'm not sure which version I prefer.

One thing that never changes is her determination to mention the source of Forest's funding. After the interview she even tweeted about it as if it was some sort of achievement.

Watch the full interview below. Deborah's zealotry was so full on it was hard not to laugh.

#packetracket BBC fails to mention FOREST funded by tobacco industry: yet again left to ASH http://t.co/e2aUrC1Rr3

— Deborah Arnott (@DeborahArnott) March 11, 2015

Does your MP have the courage and conviction to vote against plain packs?

The battle to stop plain packaging of tobacco isn't over.

Today the Designated Legislation Committee meets to consider the issue. The Committee is dominated by MPs who support standardised packs so we expect the legislation will proceed to a vote in the House of Commons tomorrow or Wednesday (No Smoking Day).

That's no reason to throw in the towel, however. Today we're writing to MPs, especially those who have previously expressed opposition to the measure, to encourage them to vote against when the time comes.

Politicians have a horrible habit of melting away if they think they're going to be on the end of a drubbing so for those who stick to their guns and vote against it will be a sign of courage and conviction.

So, if you haven't done so, please write to your MP today. As I mentioned yesterday you can send a template letter via our Last Chance Saloon website. Alternatively, send a personal email. (Check your MP's website for their contact details.)

Meanwhile, as well as writing to MPs we're messaging them via this ad on Guido Fawkes and ConservativeHome. It links to our Plain Speaking on Plain Packaging video and complements the ad that Cancer Research is running.

Decision to deny MPs a debate on plain packaging "absurd" says Conservative MP

There was an interesting discussion about plain packaging on Sky News this morning.

The guests were Labour's Luciana Berger, Imperial Tobacco's Axel Gietz and Conservative MP Sir Gerald Howarth.

I thought it was a well-handled and fair debate and for once it was the anti-smoking spokesman (Berger) who was outside sheltering from the wind and rain under an umbrella!

Howarth has had a bit of stick on Twitter but I thought he stuck to his guns very well. Responding to the suggestion that he was only dancing to the tobacco companies' tune, he described himself as a "conviction politician" and said it was "absurd" that MPs are being denied a debate on plain packaging.

I've said it before and I'll say it again – it was good to see a tobacco company spokesman in a TV debate. They should do it more often because faceless corporations are much easier to attack.

A quick word about Luciana Berger who's been a revelation since replacing Diane Abbott as Labour's shadow health minister.

She comes across as tough but charming, a rare combination in a politician. After the election I hope she's promoted well away from health!

Tomorrow the House of Commons Delegated Legislation Committee will consider the legislation for standardised packaging.

Assuming members agree to proceed MPs are expected to vote within 48 hours, possibly on Wednesday (No Smoking Day).

We're realistic about the outcome but we're determined to fight to the very end. Therefore, if you haven't already done so, please email your MP now via our Last Chance Saloon microsite.

It's important they know the strength and depth of feeling against plain packaging.

If you want to add a comment you might like to draw their attention to this video, An Evening of Plain Speaking on Plain Packaging.

It's not too late! Tell your MP today why you don't want plain packaging for tobacco http://t.co/SxM75xeccs pic.twitter.com/JHosUSFfOF

— Hands Off Our Packs (@NoToPlainPacks) March 8, 2015

Polls, packaging and the general public

Tobacco control is pushing hard to get plain packaging across the line if and when MPs vote next week.

A 'media briefing' issued by ASH yesterday claims the "public backs key tobacco control law".

Opinion polls have repeatedly shown strong public support for standardised packaging. An annual survey (“Smokefree Britain”) conducted by YouGov found that in the East of England 65% of adults polled supported the policy of requiring tobacco to be sold in plain standardised packaging with the product name in standard lettering, with only 10% opposing.

No doubt there are similar briefings for every region.

In response Forest released this response:

No public desire for plain packaging say campaigners

Campaigners opposed to plain packaging of tobacco products have rejected claims there is strong public support for the measure.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said:

"According to a Populus poll published last month the public doesn't view the government’s plain packaging proposals as a priority.

"The public wants parliament to prioritise tackling immigration and terrorism, not plain packaging of cigarettes.

"Plain packaging legislation is an ill-judged sideshow and a distraction from the real challenges the government faces before the end of this parliament."

He added:

"Two-thirds of respondents to the government's 2012 consultation, which attracted over 665,000 responses, and 99 per cent of responses to last year's consultation, opposed plain packaging.

"Given that level of opposition it's scandalous the government is pressing ahead with the policy."

There's more detail on the Forest website here: No public desire for plain packaging say campaigners.

Btw, this is what I had to say at our recent event at the Institute of Directors: