ATTEMPTS in Britain to clamp down on smoking in the early 1970s were blocked by the then prime minister, Edward Heath, according to newly released papers. But the right-wing social services secretary, Keith Joseph, emerges as a champion of the nation鈥檚 health.
In 1970, Peter Gregson, Heath鈥檚 private secretary wrote a note to the prime minister: 鈥淵ou should have early warning of the proposal by Sir K[eith] Joseph for a bill on cigarette smoking.鈥� The proposed law would have forced companies to put health warnings on adverts and given local authorities the power 鈥渢o ban smoking in public places鈥�. That is a power they still don鈥檛 have today. 鈥淣ow we see this as one of the most important things to do,鈥� says Clive Bates of anti-smoking group ASH.
Joseph鈥檚 approach was quickly watered down. In 1971 makers started putting health warnings on cigarette packets as part of a voluntary code, but there was no legislation.
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Joseph continued to push for higher tobacco taxes. In November 1971, in response to this lobbying, Gregson gave Heath an economic analysis from an unknown source. This concluded that that a 20 per cent drop in the number of smokers would cut the number of deaths by 30,000 in the first decade and by 95,000 in each of the next two decades. However, it continues: 鈥淪ome small savings in health expenditure over the next 20 years would in due course be more than offset by increases in social security payments to those whose expectation of life has been increased.鈥�
In December 1971, Joseph wanted to use the threat of legislation to persuade the industry to toughen up the code. In handwritten notes, Heath says: 鈥淚 deplore this obsession. There are better things to get [unreadable].鈥� When Joseph finally announced the results of his negotiations in July 1972, the only major change was tougher wording for health warnings in tobacco ads in cinemas.