Plymouth MP called to 'cough up' tobacco firm hospitality cash

By PRSD, on Monday, October 17, 2011

Oliver Colvile: the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP is called to donate the equivalent of his tobacco firm hospitality to a cancer charity

Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP Oliver Colvile, who has a bit of an issue with time management (of which more later), is being called on to donate to charity the equivalent of the hospitality he received from a tobacco firm.

We did a story on what MPs had declared on their register of interests, and Oliver included the information that he had received nearly £700-worth of hospitality at the Oval from Japan Tobacco International.

It has also been revealed that the Tory MP voted to relax the smoking ban.

We asked Oliver – and his office – to clarify his position on smoking (of which more to follow), alas, the MP (who receives 200 emails a day donchaknow) hasn’t found the time to explain himself.

Meanwhile, the aptly named Cough Up Colvile MP campaign has begun on Facebook.

The campaign says it is ‘to remind Mr Colvile whom he was elected to serve and to persuade him to donate the value of the hospitality he received from the tobacco company to Macmillan Cancer Support’.

And, among other things, calls on people to add to Ollie’s in tray and email him and tell him what you think (there’s a template on the site).

Find out what else you can do on the Cough Up Colvile Facebook page, and stay tuned as we get to the bottom of Oliver’s smoking story…