Cameron continues to dodge Crosby conversation question

Appearing on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show, the prime minister repeatedly declined to say whether Mr Crosby, whose lobbying clients have included tobacco giant Philip Morris, had ever spoken to him about shelving plans to remove branding from cigarette packets.

Mr Cameron said Mr Crosby “has not intervened in any way on this or indeed on other issues”. He added that it was a “media invention” and a “red herring” to suggest that Mr Crosby had any involvement in the decision.

The prime minister said Mr Crosby was “advising the Conservative party on how to take on Labour, how to make a political argument, how to prepare for the next campaign” but “he’s not advising us on policy or on issues … and he doesn’t intervene in those”.

Journalists have pushed Mr Cameron repeatedly on whether Mr Crosby had ever raised the issue with ministers in a conversation before the decision was taken to postpone a decision on plain packaging.

Previously, Mr Cameron said Mr Crosby “never lobbied him” on the policy. Ministers say there is not enough evidence yet that the move to plain packs will significantly reduce smoking.

Asked a second and third time if he had talked to Mr Crosby about the policy, Mr Cameron stuck to the line that the Australian lobbyist had not “intervened”.

The Prime Minister said: “We need more evidence, we need greater legal certainty. We’re not going ahead with it right now, but I certainly don’t rule it out for the future. So the whole thing actually from start to finish has been something of a media invention.

“So, you know, he hasn’t intervened. It would be wrong for him to intervene in any way.

“The decision was actually taken by me sitting up there at my kitchen table …let’s not move ahead with this now.”

When Marr said that was “not quite an answer to the question I asked” the prime minister told him: “Well, that’s the answer that you are getting.”

Labour’s vice-chair Michael Dugher said that response showed “breathtaking arrogance from a prime minister who looks increasingly rattled and out if touch”.

He added: “Recent polling shows that the public back plain packaging for cigarettes and that they think it’s wrong for David Cameron to employ someone who is also in the pay of a big money tobacco firm.

“We know he stands up for the wrong people, but this important question is not going away for David Cameron. Why can’t he just tell the public the truth?”

Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron told Sky News: “There’s no evidence that Lynton Crosby has formally influenced government policy on all this, but of course it looks dreadful and it’s a reminder of why it is wrong that you’ve got political parties – and it’s mostly, I have to say, the other two – that are linked to vested interests.

“When you have the lobbying industry, such as it is, and you’ve got big organisations like the tobacco industry who are able to buy expensive and senior lobbyists, and then one of them ends up working for the Conservative party, people are bound to ask questions.

“Even if there is no fire, there is plenty of smoke.”