MPs To Vote On Plain Cigarette Packaging

Cigarettes will be sold in standardised packaging from next year following a vote by MPs to rubber stamp the decision three years after it was first put forward.

Up to 100 Tory backbenchers are expected to vote against the Government policy - with some warning it is "un-Conservative" and could damage Britain's reputation.

But the Department of Health plans - which will see packets with just the brand name and a graphic warning image - are expected to pass into law because of support from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

The decision, which comes on national No Smoking Day, has been attacked by business lobbying group the CBI which is calling on MPs to vote against the plans.

John Cridland - the group's director general - said there was a "sound business case" for rejecting the proposals.

Writing for City AM he said: "We have concerns about the impact of introducing a plain packaging policy for cigarettes on the UK's global reputation for IP."

Nick De Bois, the Tory MP for Enfield North, said the comments were "very welcome and spot on".

"The Government has turned a deaf ear to the question of intellectual property rights, and they have done so at their peril," he said.

"Not just to the cost to the public purse if legal action is successful, but to Britain’s reputation as the commercial centre of the world."

Major tobacco companies are looking to take legal action but the Department of Health has long insisted that the decision is justified.

Andrew Lansley first argued in favour of the shift in 2012 when he was Health Secretary, after a government consultation.

However, David Cameron appeared to later make a U-turn on the issue, with allegations that he had come under pressure from strategist Lynton Crosby because of links to the tobacco industry.

The Government then changed its position once again, with public health minister Jane Ellison introducing a further consultation. She has pushed ahead with the plans despite the backlash within her party.