Plain packaging laws could be delayed if not introduced before the general election.

The Guardian reports:

The government is under fire from politicians on all sides amid fears that legislation forcing tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in plain packs will not be introduced before the general election. MPs from all three main parties, including the Tory chair of the health select committee, have warned time is running out to introduce a law that would see cigarettes sold in unbranded packs, a measure experts claim would deter young people from smoking. A delay would be a major victory for “big tobacco” and trigger questions for the Tories’ chief election strategist, Lynton Crosby, who runs a lobbying firm that represents Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris.

Plain packaging laws have been in place in Australia since 2012.

In late November 2014, China began the process of introducing laws to enforce smokefree public places and ban tobacco advertising. Unsurprisingly, the state-owned  tobacco industry has already started to push back against these essential reforms:

“We must note that smoking has hundreds of years of history and objectively a market demand for cigarettes still exists,” said Ling Chengxing, director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. “Tobacco control is long term, complex and arduous work, and one-sided, absolutist and expansionist tendencies should be carefully avoided.”

China is a signatory to the WHO FCTC and has a population of more than 300 million smokers.