Scottish politicians, including ministers, have been routinely lobbied by the world’s biggest cigarette firms in breach of a treaty to protect public health policy from interference by the tobacco industry, it has been claimed.
MSPs were courted on 30 occasions in the past four years by Imperial Brands, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, who used their access largely to promote the benefits of vaping. The most senior member of government to be lobbied was Ivan McKee, the trade minister, who met with Imperial on two occasions in 2018.
Dr Raouf Alebshehy, a public health consultant at the University of Bath, said the lobbying was a “clear violation” of a World Health Organisation treaty that the UK and Scottish governments signed
