The government was accused of treating the tobacco industry as a “political football” after ministers announced plans to press ahead with plain packaging legislation before the general election.
Anti-smoking campaigners had feared that the issue had been put on the backburner, but on Wednesday night ministers told the Commons that regulations on standardised packaging would be laid before parliament in time to be agreed by both Houses before the election in May.
The tobacco industry expressed dismay at the decision, which would mean the branding ban would come into force in May next year. Imperial Tobacco accused the government of “knee-jerk electioneering at the expense of evidence-based policy making”.
Japan Tobacco International, the maker of Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes, said: “It is