Documents obtained yesterday disclose how one of the world's biggest tobacco companies, British American Tobacco, was able to put private pressure on Tony Blair and a British cabinet minister who wanted to hold an inquiry into allegations that the firm was colluding with criminals.
Behind the back of parliament and public, the head of British American Tobacco (BAT), Martin Broughton, obtained access to Blair at a private breakfast, followed by an equally private meeting with the then UK trade secretary, Stephen Byers.
These unpublicized privileges were granted despite the fact that his company stood accused of colluding in cigarette smuggling on an unprecedented scale.
Two former senior UK Department of Trade and Industry officials on BAT's payroll were also used to approach their former departmental colleagues.
After this behind-the-scenes lobbying, Byers' own plan for an inquiry, which could have published a highly damaging report, was dropped.
Instead, MPs were told that a watered-down inquiry would be conducted in secret. Its activities were "buried" for almost four years, after which it emerged that no action was to be taken. BAT was so pleased with the eventual form the inquiry took that their lobbyists described it, in a private note, as "not a problem."
The papers, obtained partly thanks to government moves towards freedom of information, and partly from BAT's archives, record how powerful the private influence of large corporations can be.
This power is evident today as BAT and other tobacco companies lobby against moves to force them to put graphic photographs, such as smoke-damaged organs and clogged arteries, on their cigarette packets to warn of the dangers of smoking.
Four years ago, pressure mounted on Broughton, the ?1.4 million-a-year chairman of BAT, after this newspaper published documents detailing how the London-based corporation condoned tax evasion in a global effort to boost sales.
According to the documents, BAT arranged to supply massive numbers of cigarettes to wholesalers and distributors, expecting that they would find their way into crooked hands and on to the black markets of developing countries after being smuggled across national borders, without duty being paid.
Stephen Byers was threatening to set up an inquiry into the world's second biggest tobacco firm and publish the results.
Such a report might be highly damaging for BAT, opening the door to lawsuits from foreign governments cheated of taxes and unable to enforce public health standards.
In early 2000, BAT's lobbyists tracked sessions of a parliamentary health committee inquiry into smoking, reporting back to the company's Thames-side headquarters that the then health secretary, Alan Milburn, was unsympathetic.
"He showed little interest in working with tobacco companies ... suggesting distrust of the companies' motives," warned a lobbyist in February 2000. Another noted: "Milburn had read the serious allegations in The Guardian article and commented that the government abhors this behavior."
Broughton's first reaction was to approach Milburn's colleague, Stephen Byers, privately.
"A constructive working relationship," was required, said Broughton, a non-smoker, adding: "I am writing therefore to ask for a meeting with you."
BAT, with the former Conservative chancellor Ken Clarke on its board, hoped the Department of Trade and Industry, in its role as "sponsor" of British industry, might provide a more sympathetic channel than the health department.
But Broughton got the cold shoulder. Byers was close to the anti-smoking Alan Milburn, and refused to grant the tobacco chief an audience.
A Department of Trade and Industry minute stated: "The company has made a number of attempts to meet department ministers since the election, but until now all requests have been declined."
One of the trade department's inhouse lobbyists, Simon Millson, made contact with the official heading the its tobacco desk, Julian Ebsworth.
"I tried to pursue the issue on whether we would get a meeting. He said that was for the minister to decide `given all the other issues.' I sense some buck-passing going on."
In March, Byers signalled that he planned to set up an inquiry under section 432 of the Companies Act, allowing files to be seized, employees to be questioned on oath, and -- crucially -- permitted Byers to "cause any such report to be ... published."
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