Marlboro maker Philip Morris could stop selling cigarettes in UK
Tobacco giant Philip Morris has said it could stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years' time.
The move would mean that the firm's flagship Marlboro brand would disappear from British shops.
Its comments come two years after the government said it wanted to end smoking in England by 2030.
In a statement, the company also said that "strong regulation" was needed to "help solve the problem of cigarette smoking once and for all".
In comments first reported in the Mail on Sunday, Philip Morris International's (PMI) chief executive, Jacek Olczak, told the newspaper: "I want to allow this company to leave smoking behind."
He added: "I think in the UK, 10 years from now maximum, you can completely solve the problem of smoking."
However, the company has made similar statements before, says campaigning health charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).
"Philip Morris has claimed that it wants to see the end of smoking for years now, but how can such claims be taken seriously from a company which sells more than one in 10 cigarettes smoked worldwide?," Ash's chief executive Deborah Arnott told the BBC.
She stressed that ending smoking by 2030 must be a priority for the government.
"Smoking is likely to have killed more people than Covid-19 last year in the UK," she added.
"Fine words from Philip Morris are not the solution - funding is needed for government-backed behaviour change campaigns to discourage smoking, and support to help smokers quit."
In 2016, Mr Olczak's predecessor as chief executive, André Calantzopoulos, told the BBC that the firm could stop making conventional cigarettes.
And in 2018, in another BBC interview, Mr Calantzopoulos said Philip Morris wanted to phase out cigarettes as soon as possible.
Following Mr Olczak's latest remarks, Dr Moira Gilchrist, the firm's vice-president of strategic and scientific communications, told the BBC: "PMI can see a world without cigarettes - the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone.
"Quitting is the best option, but for those who don't, science and technology has allowed companies like ours to create better alternatives to continued smoking.
She added that encouraging people to switch to alternatives, together with strong regulation, would help solve the problem of cigarette smoking "once and for all".
"With the right measures in place, PMI can stop selling cigarettes in the UK in 10 years' time."
