What The Papers Say: Labour spins off in tobacco gravel trap

Fox hunters, beagles and cold pensioners would be well-advised to sign up Messrs Ecclestone and Mosley to plead their cause. New Labour’s pre-election stance was against tobacco promotion in all its forms. Eschewing professional lobbyists, motor-racing’s svengalis shunted Labour into the first major U-turn of the new administration, to exempt Formula 1 from the proposed ban on tobacco sponsorship. Some commentators saw this as a sign of strength in Tony Blair, notably Peter Oborne in the Express on 9 Nov: ’Tobacco U-turn is Blair’s finest hour’.