UK: Labour Leader Ed Miliband Sparks Fight With Bristol Tobacco Giant

Source from:  The Bristol Post 09/25/2014

ED Miliband has picked a fight with one of Bristol's big employers after announcing plans for a new tax on tobacco firms.

The Labour leader pledged to raise NHS funding and boost the number of frontline medical staff as he delivered his two-term vision to "restore people's faith" in politics.

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Mr Miliband promised to pour ￡2.5 billion per year into a Time to Care fund to tackle shortages that have left wards, surgeries and care homes dangerously understaffed.

But plans to raise ￡150 million by taxing tobacco companies' profits drew an angry response from Bristol-based Imperial Tobacco, which employs around 600 people at its headquarters in Ashton Vale.

A spokesman for the company said the idea "fails to acknowledge the wider contribution made by Imperial to society, and will place further pressure on jobs and livelihoods".

Earlier this year Imperial announced plans to shut its Nottingham cigarette factory, with the loss of 540 jobs, citing in part "excessive tobacco regulation and taxation".

The spokesman added: "The idea of a targeting a sole, legitimate business sector with an additional tax is totally unwarranted and unjust and should be dismissed immediately.

"The amount raised by current UK tobacco taxation - ￡12.3 billion per annum - dwarfs any of the various figures that have been calculated as the cost of smoking to the NHS.

"Imperial is already one of the largest contributors of tax to the UK Government in the FTSE100, contributing billions of pounds in tax and excise every year. The UK tobacco industry is subject to a punitive high rate of excise, meaning the average total tax take on a pack of cigarettes is 86 per cent."

Mr Miliband said Labour would recruit 20,000 nurses, 8,000 GPs, 3,000 midwives and 5,000 care workers, as part of a wider shift to a more integrated health and care system.

In an effort to underscore the party's commitment to fiscal discipline, Mr Miliband said the funding would come through a "mansion tax" on homes worth more than ￡2 million, raising ￡1.2 billion, clamping down on tax dodgers to raise ￡1.1 billion and the levy on the tobacco industry.

Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy conceded that Imperial Tobacco would take a financial hit under a future Labour Government.

She said: "Bristol has a long history with the tobacco sector, as we know, going as far back as the slave trade.

"But it also makes a huge profit; it is only right that they make a contribution. I would much rather see money being taken out of the pockets of large, profitable companies that don't deliver a social good, than see money come from the pockets of hard-working and vulnerable people."

Ms McCarthy said Mr Miliband's words would resonate with voters at next year's General Election.

She said: "People weighing up who they're going to vote for want to know that politicians understand and recognise the tough times they are going through - even those who might be relatively more comfortable than others."

Ms McCarthy also welcomed a commitment to see as many school leavers take up apprenticeships as currently go to university by 2025.

While long-term youth unemployment is lower in Bristol than in many other areas across the country, she said it was "still worryingly high, with too many leaving school without anything to show for it".

As part of his 10-year plan to "restore people's faith in the future", Mr Miliband made six key policy commitments. In addition to his pledges on apprenticeships and the NHS, he promised to create one million green high-tech jobs; wages to grow in line with the economy, halve the number of people on low pay, and double the number of first-time buyers.