Cyril Smith involved in attempted smear campaign against asbestos documentary journalists

Turner & Newall request to Cyril Smith re Select Committee

Former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith was involved in an attempted smear campaign against journalists who made a documentary regarding asbestos.

Documents discovered by Spodden Valley Campaign Co-Ordniator Jason Addy, which relate to Turner and Newall, show that the late MP was heavily involved with the smear campaign in the 1980s.

In 1982, Yorkshire Television (now ITV Yorkshire) produced a ground breaking documentary called ‘Alice – Fight for Life.’ The documentary featured 47 year old Alice Jefferson, a British woman who developed malignant pleural mesothelioma thirty years after working for nine months at Cape Insulations Acre Mill asbestos plant in Hebden Bridge.

The documentary uncovered an extensive corporate cover-up in the asbestos industry regarding cancer. At the time, Turner and Newall was the biggest asbestos company in the country with a large factory complex in Spodden Valley, Rochdale. Cyril Smith was the MP for Rochdale at that time.

The documents seen by Rochdale Online give a detailed insight into the calculated way in which Smith and Turner and Newall attempted to
destroy the reputation of the documentary researchers and journalists after their documentary was broadcast.

The documents show:

• Confidential intelligence reports on the private lives of the journalists connected to the documentary and meetings they attended. 
• Smear tactics used by Smith for Turner and Newall against Yorkshire Television in Parliamentary speeches and at a Select Committee hearing against the “Yorkshire TV Ogre.” 
• Cyril Smith sound bites (protected by Parliamentary Privilege) designed to undermine the television station in newspaper headlines. Smith accused the documentary makers of lying and demanded that Turner and Newall sue Yorkshire Television. 
• An orchestrated and crude letter writing campaign in the local media attacking the documentary journalists and defending asbestos production. 
• Corporate monitoring and some successful attempts to ban overseas broadcasts of the documentary. 

Jason said: “These new documents shed light on the volume and intensity of Smith and Turner and Newall’s determination to defend asbestos production and attack Yorkshire Television but it was to little avail. Within months of the documentary being broadcast the Government introduced tighter asbestos laws.”

Before Smith died in 2010 he admitted to owning shares in Turner and Newall and it was also confirmed that he often spoke to defend asbestos production in parliament using notes that Turner and Newall had prepared for him.

Smith however denied claims that he covered up asbestos problems in Rochdale during his time as an MP for the town and often defended his actions regarding Turner and Newall by stating, “I always put the jobs of Rochdale folk first”.

After the documentary was broadcast, Turner and Newall’s share price plummeted but the shares Smith acquired, as he lobbied on the company’s behalf, reportedly rose 10 fold within five years.

Despite the attempted campaign, Yorkshire Television won an international award for their documentary and it is still remembered today as one of the most influential documentaries of its type with the work and the integrity of the documentary and its journalists being vindicated.

Jason added: “Unfortunately, as a result of intense corporate and political lobbying, asbestos was not effectively banned in the UK until 1999. Official statistics published last week show the extent of the asbestos cancer epidemic Britain now faces. The Health and Safety Executive reported that over 2,000 people will die this year of the asbestos cancer – something Cyril Smith dismissed in 1982. Now, the HSE has predicted a further 50,000 plus UK deaths in the decades to come.”