An MP has called for an investigation into the "improper funding relationship" between Britain's Department for Health (DH) and an anti-smoking lobby group. Philip Davies MP made the demand after revelations that DH granted money to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which the group subsequently used to lobby for tobacco control measures under consideration by the department.
Documentation obtained by Breitbart London shows that ASH – a leading proponent of laws that would mandate standardised packaging of tobacco products as well as other rules intended to curb smoking – applied for and received a section 64 grant from the Department of Health to pursue its 'Capitalising on Smokefree' project.
The grant application indicates on Page 4 (below) that UK taxpayer funds would help to achieve the objectives by enabling ASH to engage in "media advocacy and lobbying" and running "training sessions for new DH officials."
It's a question that every British taxpayer should be asking. Why are we being forced to fund neo-prohibitionist lobby groups? And why have ASH and the Department of Health been covering it up?
1 comment:
The law has no teeth on this matter. The misuse of funds is ignored both here and in the US, where MSA payments are in practice used for any purpose including lobbying when this is, as here, theoretically proscribed.
Anything connected with tobacco or any related area of health and politics is a free-fire zone where normal laws don't apply.
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