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• Revealed: Ken Clarke’s free trips to F1 and opera - courtesy of tobacco giant  

Fresh details of the way tobacco companies wooed Tory business spokesman Kenneth Clarke with perks including tickets to the opera, rugby and Formula 1 motor racing were disclosed last night.

Mr Clarke was heavily criticised by anti-smoking groups for being paid more than £1million in his ten years working for British American Tobacco while he was an MP.

He resigned as deputy chairman of BAT last year, widely seen as preparing the way for last week’s political comeback when David Cameron appointed him to the Shadow Cabinet.

But The Mail on Sunday can reveal he was offered generous perks from BAT and its main rival while he was a senior Minister in Conservative governments led by Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

Sir Patrick Sheehy, then chairman of BAT, invited Mr Clarke and his wife Gillian to La Traviata at Glyndebourne and an England rugby international.

While Chancellor, Mr Clarke corresponded with Sir Patrick after the tobacco boss asked him to intervene to protect the firm’s commercial interests. Mr Clarke promised to curb ‘excessive cost and regulation’.

In addition, Philip Morris, makers of Marlboro cigarettes, a big Formula 1 sponsor which was fighting EU plans to outlaw tobacco advertising in the sport, invited Mr Clarke to the British Grand Prix. . . .

The new information comes from documents collected by the University of California from US law suits against tobacco companies. . . .

In 1989, Mr Clarke, by now Health Secretary, resisted moves to include ‘smoking kills’ warnings on cigarette packets. In the same period, BAT’s rival, Philip Morris, also offered to entertain Mr Clarke. . . .

Labour MP Kevin Barron last night called on Mr Clarke to explain his ‘cosy relationship’ with tobacco firms.

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• Blair will not face British probe over F1 tobacco ban: speaker 

Former prime minister Tony Blair will not face an investigation into how Formula One racing was exempted from a tobacco advertising ban, the House of Commons Speaker said in a letter released Monday.

Blair had faced a possible probe by Speaker Michael Martin after two lawmakers complained following the release of new papers on the move in 1997 under freedom of information laws. . . .

Now Martin has written to one of the two lawmakers who complained, John Maples of the main opposition Conservatives, to say that while Blair's answers on the issue "could have been clearer", he would not take further action.

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• Tobacco bill glitch goes up in smoke  

THE State Government has blamed a clerical error for the inclusion of a clause in its anti-tobacco advertising legislation that would have bypassed existing ad bans and allowed tobacco companies to sponsor high-profile sports such as motor racing and horse racing.

The Premier, Nathan Rees, made the embarrassing admission after his Health Department came under fire for inserting the clause into a bill drawn up to curb sale of cigarettes to minors.

Asked whether tobacco companies would be allowed to sponsor V8 Supercars, which will hold a race at Homebush Bay next year, Mr Rees said "no" and added: "The advice to me is that it was a drafting error and we are going to fix it. If there is a loophole, we will fix it."

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• Probe launched into why Blair exempted Formula One from ban on tobacco advertising  

Commons Speaker Michael Martin last night launched an investigation into whether Tony Blair 'deliberately misled' Parliament over New Labour's first sleaze scandal.

The Speaker said he was 'deeply concerned' by claims that the former prime minister 'lied' to MPs over how Formula 1 came to be exempted from a ban on tobacco advertising. . . .

Misleading Parliament is a breach of the ministerial code of conduct and a sackable offence.

It is unclear what, if any sanction Mr Blair could face if an inquiry found he had done so, since he is no longer an MP.

However, the former prime minister could face a humiliating recall to Parliament to explain himself if a Commons committee decided to reinvestigate the affair.

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• EDITORIAL: Bernie Ecclestone and Tony Blair, a truth revealed 10 years too late 

"An Ecclestone" is cockney argot for a million pounds - the sum that Bernie Ecclestone, then in charge of Formula 1 motor racing, gave to the Labour Party in 1997. Months later, Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, changed Government policy to Mr Ecclestone's advantage: Formula 1 would be exempt from the general ban on cigarette advertising at sporting events. . . .

Was the million pound donation enough to persuade Mr Blair to change Labour's policy? At the time, Mr Blair denied it.

Famously, he said he was a "pretty straight sort of guy". Most people believed him. Documents obtained by The Sunday Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) nevertheless show conclusively that while Mr Blair may have had many political virtues, being straight with the public was not one of them. . . .

It is a serious indictment of the way FOI operates that it should have taken Christopher Hastings, our reporter, more than two years to obtain the relevant documents. We wonder what other truths the guardians of "freedom of information" are protecting from public scrutiny until they can no longer harm the Government.

The public ought to be told, now. But we can be sure that they won't be.

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• Revealed: the truth about Tony Blair's role in the Ecclestone Affair  

The truth about Tony Blair's actions during the notorious Ecclestone Affair - New Labour's first sleaze scandal - can be revealed for the first time after the release of previously secret Government documents.

The documents - released to The Sunday Telegraph after a two-and-a-half year Freedom of Information battle - reveal that Mr Blair personally intervened to secure Formula One's exemption from the tobacco advertising ban just hours after meeting Bernie Ecclestone, the motorsport's billionaire boss.

The Government has always maintained that the meeting with Mr Ecclestone, a major new Labour donor at the time, did not influence the final decision to offer the exemption.

However the previously secret papers show that Mr Blair did order ministers to find ways to implement the "derogation" for Formula One after the meeting.

The revelation casts doubt on the version of events given by officials both to Parliament and to lobby journalists when the sleaze scandal first broke in 1997. . . .

The documents also reveal that Mr Blair overrided the objections of then Health Secretary Frank Dobson who claimed that exempting Formula One could result in "serious damages to the Government".

A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "There is nothing new here. All these issues were debated at the time."

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• End of the Tobacco Road In Formula One 

But at the recent Bahrain grand prix, where local laws theoretically would have allowed Ferrari to run tobacco branding, the two F2008 cars instead displayed the so-called 'barcode' livery -- reminiscent of the Marlboro signage but using white markings instead of letters and logos.

According to Autoweek magazine, Ferrari has confirmed that Marlboro logos "will no longer appear on its cars".

Reportedly, Philip Morris, owned by Altria Group, decided that the 'barcode' livery should be permanent.

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• Singapore's ban on tobacco ads will apply to Grand Prix: report 

Singapore's strict laws banning tobacco advertisements will apply to the city-state's inaugural Formula One Grand Prix in September, a report said Sunday.

The sport's first-ever night race around Singapore's streets will take place on September 28.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Trade and Industry told the Sunday Times "the publication or display of any acknowledgement of sponsorship of a tobacco company would, as a general rule, be prohibited."

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• F1 a victim as Bahrain stamps out smoking. 

Despite the sport having banned such sponsorship since 2005, posters advertising tobacco products using the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix are to be pulled down as the country attempts to fall into line with increasingly popular smoking restrictions.

According to the Gulf Daily News, the move is part of efforts to stop cigarette and tobacco advertising at all sporting events throughout the kingdom, including all events at the Bahrain International Circuit. The ban on billboard advertising is seen as an extremely significant development.

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• EU health chief asks China to ban tobacco promotions at Formula One race 

e European Union's health commissioner has asked China to ban tobacco promotions at next month's Formula One Chinese Grand Prix in keeping with EU law.

Markos Kyprianou said Wednesday he told Chinese Vice Health Minister Chen Xiaohong the EU was concerned about images of cigarette advertisements being beamed back into Europe.

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• Brussels presses F1 over tobacco ties 

Formula 1 should cut its remaining ties to tobacco as part of efforts to discourage youngsters from smoking, the European Commission's health chief has said.

Markos Kyprianou said: "Formula 1 race drivers . . . are viewed as heroes. They can become role models . . . so the young people watch these people with tobacco signs on their chest and the wrong message goes out."

He urged the sport to scrap big-money tobacco sponsorship and advertising deals, in a further sign of the Commission's contentious anti-smoking campaign.

Mr Kyprianou's call will focus attention on Ferrari, the only team, he said, that still had tobacco sponsors. Ferrari, home to drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen, carries branding from Marlboro, a division of the tobacco company Philip Morris.

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• Diaries reopen the Bernie Ecclestone affair 

The diaries reopen the controversy over whether Gordon Brown deliberately lied over the secret £1 million donation from Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula 1 racing chief, who secured an exemption from the ban on tobacco advertising at race circuits.

Mr Campbell says they had agreed a media strategy about the donation, the size of which was not known, three days before Mr Brown gave an interview on the BBC Today programme denying all knowledge of it.

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• Philip Morris Breaks Promise to End Sponsorship of Formula One Auto Racing 

Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International (both subsidiaries of Altria) claim they are changed, responsible companies that do not market to kids and are concerned about the health risks of their products. But the companies' actions tell a different story. In the latest example, Philip Morris International this year is the only tobacco company that continues to sponsor Formula One auto races, which exposes spectators and tens of millions of television viewers worldwide - including millions of children - to the name, logo and red-and-white colors of the company's best-selling Marlboro cigarettes. The Marlboro brand was prominently displayed on the winning car and uniforms of the driver and pit crew at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. No responsible company would continue to associate deadly and addictive cigarettes with the excitement and glamour of auto racing, thereby increasing their appeal to children.

Philip Morris' sponsorship of Formula One violates the company's own voluntary marketing standards and circumvents the efforts of a growing number of countries around the world to prohibit tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorships, as required by the international tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

On September 11, 2001, Philip Morris, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco - the three largest multinational tobacco companies - issued voluntary marketing standards that set a deadline of December 2006 for ending tobacco sponsorships of sports

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• On Advertising: Formula One kicks the tobacco habit  

The flurry of activity comes as Formula One draws ever closer to kicking its long-term dependence on tobacco. With regulators in Europe and elsewhere moving to close some of the last loopholes that permitted cigarette companies to sponsor auto racing, the hundreds of millions of dollars that these brands used to lavish on Formula One are dwindling.

As of next season, two tobacco brands that have long been high- profile Formula One sponsors will be out of the running. Mild Seven, owned by Japan Tobacco, has ended its relationship with the Renault team, while a deal between British American Tobacco's Lucky Strike brand and the Honda team has also expired. Other cigarette brands, like West and Benson & Hedges, previously bowed out.

Tobacco brands had been willing to pay a premium for these sponsorships because Formula One was one of the last marketing options left for the industry. With that money now dwindling, some teams feared a funding crisis. Instead, analysts say, as racing executives prepare to gather next week in Monaco for a conference on the commercial side of the sport, the sponsorship market looks surprisingly healthy.

The departure of the tobacco brands may actually have helped to attract a new kind of marketer, analysts say. . . .

One prominent team, Ferrari, will continue to accept tobacco money next season, even as it faces racing without the driver Michael Schumacher, who retired last month. Philip Morris's Marlboro brand plans to support the team financially through 2011 under a deal signed last year. At races in Europe and most other Formula One sites, Ferrari will be barred from displaying the Marlboro logo.

"We still believe it's appropriate for us to be involved," said Tommaso Di Giovanni, a Philip Morris spokesman, adding that the company would try to "develop innovative ways to convey the sponsorship to consumers."

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• Williams F1 secure AT&T sponsorship 

Williams F1 have secured title sponsorship from AT&T for the 2007 season.

The multi-year agreement with one of the leading telecommunications companies in the world will see the Formula One team rebranded AT&T Williams F1 next year.

"Formula One provides a unique platform for a global brand like AT&T," said Mark Keiffer, AT&T chief marketing officer. . . .

Observers point out that the end of tobacco sponsorship in Formula One has removed that stigma which some companies did not want to be associated with. This should open the door to more of these type of deals as companies now look to the sport as a way to market the brand or services globally. Dutch banking firm ING recently concluded a deal with Renault while earlier this year, McLaren managed to lure phone giant Vodafone to its stable.

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