Retailers welcome politicians' stance on tobacco displays

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Independent retailers have welcomed comments made by Shadow Health Ministers Norman Lamb MP and Mike Penning MP regarding the future of tobacco displays in shops.

The Liberal Democrat and Conservative Party Shadow Ministers were speaking on the BBC Politics Show, Sunday 16 November, as part of a feature on the Government's proposals to ban the display of tobacco in shops as a means of reducing youth smoking.

Both Shadow Ministers raised concerns that the government's proposals will not meet their stated objectives of reducing youth smoking and would harm retailers' business.

Mike Penning MP called on the Government to make it illegal for adults to purchase tobacco products on behalf of the underage. This measure also gained support from former health secretary Patricia Hewitt MP.

Ken Patel, National Spokesman for the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, said: "What Mr Penning and Mr Lamb made clear is that these proposals would not meet their stated objective, and yet would have a very detrimental impact on small shops.

"There is no evidence to suggest that banning the display of tobacco would reduce youth smoking. These proposals are nothing more than an experiment with our businesses and it would be very unfair to experiment with our livelihoods during a recession.

"Independent retailers have been writing letters and visiting their MPs' surgery, and the message is definitely getting through that this would be bad for small businesses."

Katherine Graham, Campaign Manager said: "The government has said that it wants to help small businesses during these difficult times, yet a ban on displaying tobacco products would have exactly the opposite effect. It would hit small retailers hard.

The BBC Politics show can be viewed until the end of this week on the BBC iPlayer

(The politicians' comments start at about 19 minutes and 40 seconds into the programme).