‘Stop people being misled’

The Rother Valley MP made the call on Valentine’s Day, almost six months since the Government’s consultation on standardised tobacco packaging ended.

The day also marked seven years since the House of Commons voted for smoke free legislation, a measure which has helped to save lives by protecting millions of people from the dangers of secondhand smoke.

It is also the 10th anniversary of the start of the tobacco advertising ban, which prohibited most forms of tobacco advertising and promotion, including advertising in print media and billboards.

Mr Barron, who is the vice chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, said: “There’s a reason why the tobacco industry spends thousands of pounds each year on making their packs more attractive: it works.”

“So it’s not surprising that they’re desperately trying to prevent standardised packs being introduced.”

“Standard tobacco packaging will stop the public being misled about the dangers of smoking and will make cigarettes less attractive to young people. MPs from all parties support this important measure.”

According to Mr Barron it is ‘critical’ that standardised packaging is introduced to protect children from the lure of cigarette packets.

Mr Barron believes that introducing it in the UK would be cheap and easy to implement. The measure has already been introduced in Australia, where retailers found it straightforward to introduce and there is no evidence that their introduction will increase smuggling, contrary to the views of some tobacco companies.

There is also strong support for it from the public, the public health community and all parties in Westminster.