THREE trade groups leading the fight against the introduction of plain packaging of cigarettes have received fees or funding from tobacco companies.
Representative bodies for grocers, petrol stations and wholesalers -all of which are lobbying against a policy supported by the Scottish and UK Governments - have taken money from a multi-billion pound tobacco industry opposed to the restrictions.
Plain packaging would remove branding and result in standardised health warnings across tobacco products, a policy campaigners believe will result in a fall in consumption.
ASH Scotland - the anti-smoking charity - condemned the tobacco industry for using "front" organisations.
Scottish Government ministers even gave David Cameron's administration permission to enact the measure on their behalf.
This has triggered a round of lobbying at Holyrood and Westminster.
Three groups in particular - the Scottish Grocers' Federation (SGF), the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA) and the Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA) - have been vocal in their opposition.
PRA chairman Brian Madderson hit out at the support for plain packaging, urging both governments to "pause and thoroughly review the wider, detrimental impacts it will have before it is too late".
His organisation, which represents 5300 independent UK filling stations, revealed a member survey last month showed concern about plain packaging. But it was funded by Philip Morris Limited, a cigarette firm.
The group says that tobacco manufacturers and suppliers are among its "associates and retail members".
The SWA, which is based in Edinburgh, launched its Plain Nonsense campaign in 2012 as an early attempt to head off the plans, arguing there was "no credible evidence" that plain packaging would reduce smoking.
But the campaign was "made possible" by "support" from British American Tobacco (BAT) UK Ltd.
James Barge, the head of regulatory affairs at Philip Morris, is a scheduled speaker at the organisation's conference next month.
The SGF - a trade body for convenience stores - has also lobbied the Scottish and UK governments.
In a letter to the Chancellor in March, the SGF urged him to consider the "serious impact" of the policy which it said would harm jobs.
The SGF website states that three tobacco firms - JTI, Imperial and Philip Morris - hold "gold" corporate memberships costing £9999 per year.
But Sheila Duffy, chief executive of ASH Scotland, said: "The tobacco companies are not trusted, but they are wealthy and so they generally recruit or create other voices to front their campaigns. They do this in a number of ways, including funding their own support groups and through their ties with organisations they give financial support to, such as the Scottish Grocers' Federation.
"Tobacco industry-funded claims that plain packs will not deter young people from taking up smoking, will damage trade for small shops and lead to a growth in illicit tobacco are unfounded and unreliable."
John Lee, the public affairs adviser for the Scottish Grocers' Federation, said: "The policy direction and the policy priorities of SGF are decided on solely by our National Executive, which is made up entirely of retailer representatives.
"Corporate members are not represented on the National Executive and have no say in the development of our political or campaigning activities."
Madderson said: "The PRA has business relationships with a wide range of companies that supply products and services to the independent petrol forecourt sector. Tobacco is one such product line."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article