Priti Patel

Priti Patel is a British politician who was made Home Secretary on 24 July 2019.¹ She was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Witham (Essex, UK) in May 2010. She was previously Secretary of State for International Development but resigned in November 2017 over undeclared meetings with Israeli officials.²

Background

Previous Roles in Government

• The Secretary of State for International Development (14 Jul 2016 to 8 Nov 2017)³
• Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions) (8 May 2015 to 14 Jul 2016)
• Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (July 2014-May 2015)⁴
• Member, Members’ Expenses Committee (July 2011-March 2015)⁵
• Chair, All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group (up to July 2014)⁶
• Member, Public Administration Committee (December 2011-June 2014)⁵
• Member, Draft Deregulation Bill Joint Committee (July 2013-December 2013)⁵
• Deputy Press Secretary to William Hague MP (1997 to 2000).⁵

Other Roles

Patel worked at public relations firm Weber Shandwick from 2000 to 2003. In her role as Policy, Media and Campaigns Adviser, she worked, among others, with Meat & Livestock Commission, IKEA, The Bar Council, and British American Tobacco (BAT).⁷

Relationship with the Tobacco Industry

Working on the BAT Account at Weber Shandwick

Numerous internal tobacco company documents reveal Patel’s involvement with BAT, whilst employed at Weber Shandwick:

• According to documents obtained by The Observer newspaper Patel was one of seven people Shandwick employed on the BAT account.⁸
• In August and September 2000, Patel attended BAT’s ‘Operational Planning Meetings’.⁹¹⁰
• In October 2000, she provided summaries of media articles on BAT’s involvement in tobacco smuggling.¹¹
• A memo from Shandwick to BAT in October 2000 set out roles on “Project Sunrise” and said that Patel was responsible for “day to day account co-ordination, project management” and “assists on media relations”.¹² Two documents name Patel as “day to day Account Co-ordinator, project management, assists on media relation ¹³ and responsible for “UK media”, as part of Project Sunrise.¹⁴ The documents are unclear what this project was, but Philip Morris ran a project with the same name which “laid out an explicit divide-and-conquer strategy against the tobacco control movement”.¹⁵
• In November 2000, Patel was part of a group sent a strategy about how BAT could influence the outcome of the World Health Organization’s negotiations on developing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.¹⁶¹⁷
• In the same month, she was part of a group sent a letter lobbying MEPs on the proposed EU’s Tobacco Control Directive. The documents suggest Patel was a integral to BAT’s lobbying on the Directive. The document stated “Our campaign on the proposed EU tobacco control directive is reaching a critical stage”, and then added:

“With the vote in the European Parliament anticipated for the week commencing 11 December, and political groups meeting on 5 and 6 December to decide their positions, the EU Directive Task Force has decided to target ALL MEPs with a personal letter from Martin Broughton on Monday 4 December. The letter will be faxed to each of them, in English. As a matter of effectiveness and courtesy, we have also decided to attach to the letter a translation in the native language of each of the recipients … As the letter will go out on Monday, I would be very grateful if you could send your translated documents via lotus notes to Priti Patel by no later than opening of business Monday morning, 4 December – earlier if possible. (Priti will be handling the logistics of getting the letters faxed to each of the MEPs)” Emphasis in the original¹⁸

• A letter from Weber Shandwick to BAT in January 2001 outlined Patel’s role, including interacting with the Conservative Party: “Priti will be responsible for day-to-day activity on the account, including drafting advice notes and assisting you in preparing briefings, mailshots or the like. She will also provide strategic advice on the account, with a particular focus on the Conservative Party.” The document added that Patel would work for “15 hours in total” each month for BAT, “including principal responsibility for execution on day-to-day account activity, drafting documents, and attendance at monthly client meetings”.¹⁹
• A memo from March 2001 shows Patel “working with BAT External Communications Team” and also responsible for “social reporting” and a “global events calendar”.²⁰
• In 2001, documents obtained by The Observer newspaper show Shandwick created plans to invoice BAT for 279 hours of work a month, of which Patel contributed 100 hours. In total, Patel’s work was charged to BAT at £165 per hour. ²¹

Seconded to BAT’s Press Office

Four documents suggest that Patel may have been seconded to BAT’s press office in 2000:

• On 30 October 2000, the Department for Trade and Industry announced an investigation into BAT’s involvement in tobacco smuggling.²² Patel’s name appeared in a BAT media release about the investigation as a contact at the company’s press office.²³ For more information, see our page on BAT Involvement in Tobacco Smuggling.
• On 6 December 2000, her name appeared again as a media contact on a BAT press release about the Government’s Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill.²⁴
• On 20 December 2000, a fax to Patel suggests that she was working for BAT in the company’s London headquarters, Globe House.²⁵
• On 13 March 2001, Colin Byrne from Weber Shandwick wrote: “Priti is now working with the communications team as an integral part of the team … working on developing communications ideas for projects such as the Marketing Standards and the Nigerian announcement and also sharing information/insights with the team on overall issues that come up while also dealing with press office requests when based in the press office.”²⁶

Opposed Tobacco Control Measures in the UK

Since she was elected MP, Patel has publicly supported tobacco industry positions in Parliament on various occasions.

Against Smokefree Legislation

In October 2010, Patel voted for the smoking ban to be overturned.²⁷

Against Point of Sales Display Ban

In December 2010, Patel signed a letter demanding the government reconsiders the tobacco display ban.²⁸

Against Plain Packaging

Patel is on record calling plain packaging a “completely mad” policy which is “a blunt instrument which will have a disproportionate impact on independent retailers.”²⁹ She argues that “plain packaging will serve to harm the very businesses that are best-placed to prevent underage sales and fight back against illegal and illicit supplies.”²⁹ Patel also believes that “new plain packaging rules that go further than this would only serve to be another nail in the coffin for many newsagents.”²⁹
After the Chantler review into plain packaging was published, Patel wrote to the chair of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), appealing for its members to lobby their MPs to object to the proposals. Patel wrote that she was concerned about the implications of plain packs for small shops, tax revenues and smuggling.³⁰ For more on this, visit our Petrol Retailers Association page.

Affiliations

The Free Enterprise Group

Patel is a member of the Free Enterprise Group, a group of Conservative MPs, who, among other things, encourage a competitive and free economic environment.³¹
On its website the Group reveals that “Administrative support for the group is supplied by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)”.³² The IEA receives financial support from the tobacco industry.³³³⁴
In the week following the announcement that the UK Government would reconsider plain packaging in November 2013, the Free Enterprise Group published a report, ‘The Business of Small Enterprise’. In the report the Group recommends that the Government “drop proposals for plain packaging”.³⁵

TobaccoTactics Resources

• British American Tobacco
• Plain Packaging in the UK
• Display Ban
• Free Enterprise Group
• All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group

Relevant Links

• Patel’s UK Government Profile
• Patel’s TheyWorkForYou profile.