HC Deb 20 January 1987 vol 108 c755 4.46 pm
Mr. Clement Freud (Cambridgeshire, North-East)

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 20, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely, the agreement on sponsorship of sport by the tobacco industry. This was published yesterday as a reply to a written question with a copy placed in the Library. It was discussed by every national newspaper today, although we in the House are denied the opportunity of debate unless you, Mr. Speaker, allow the application.

It is an important matter because the Royal College of Physicians estimates that tobacco-related diseases kill 100,000 people a year in this country and 112 people have lung cancer diagnosed every single day. In the United States the Surgeon General has ruled that there is a definite danger to passive smokers' health—that is, to those people who inhale the fumes of other people's tobacco. That is especially important, when one compares those figures with the expected death rate of AIDS—4,000 people by the end of the decade. The Government give lavish time in both Houses for the debates on that disease.

The matter is specific in that the new agreement that was published yesterday afternoon, without granting an opportunity for debate, is seen as a victory for the tobacco companies by the media. It is only the good sense and decency of the BBC and ITV that is denying them even greater opportunity for spreading their fatal message. It is specific also in that the agreement is to be monitored by the Lazarus committee, which—if ours and other people's reading of the statement is correct—cannot override the Advertising Standards Authority. It is plumb wrong that such deals are made without reference to the House.

The matter is urgent because the country is denied the voice of Parliament in a matter dealing with our duty to care for our fellow citizens, especially those who are young and impressionable. Any association or encouragement to smoke with sport is repugnant. To make no real move to end this relationship is wrong, just as many of us feel that it is improper to make important statements in the form of a reply to a planted question.

Therefore, I ask you, Mr. Speaker, to give your consent to this application for a short debate.

Mr. Speaker

The hon. Member asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he believes should have urgent consideration, namely, the agreement on sponsorship of sport by the tobacco industry. As the hon. Member knows, my sole consideration when considering these applications is whether to give them precedence over the orders set down for today or tomorrow. I regret that I do not consider that the matter he has moved is appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 20. Therefore, I cannot submit his application to the House.