The UK government has moved swiftly today to reject the findings of a report that suggests smoking is one of the main causes of cancer. The report by Cancer Research UK claims tobacco is responsible for cancer in 23% of male and 15.6% of female sufferers.
In a surprise change by the Government, a press conference to discuss the findings due to be held by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, was instead held by Chancellor George Osborne. ‘The suggestion that smoking causes any sort of cancer is a myth. In fact, the treasury have found smoking actually benefits you physically and mentally, and us financially. The figures to support that can be found next to our policies on the back of this fag packet’.
Mr Osborne continued on to deny the £11.1 billion inhaled into the inland revenue from smokers was the reason he refused to believe the findings. But this was met with distain by Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who claims that this is another example of government policy going up in smoke
‘We spent 13 years convincing people to give up smoking whilst raising the taxes to make sure the treasury didn’t lose out. It seems the Chancellor has no interest in smokers' health, just the health of the government coughers’
