ANGRY health campaigners last night begged the PM not to scrap plans for plain fag packets.
In a slap in the face for ex-Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, David Cameron yanked the proposed law out of next week’s Queen’s Speech.
The PM fears the move will hit the tobacco industry and slash £3billion from tax revenues.
But Mr Lansley declared last April that the Government wanted tobacco firms to have “no business” in Britain.
Public health minister Anna Soubry had also told a Lords committee seven weeks ago that cigarette packaging encourages youngsters to start.
Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham accused the PM of “caving in to big business”.
And the Smokefree Action Coalition — an alliance of more than 100 health groups — urged Mr Cameron not to abandon the plan.
In a letter to him, they said: “Abandoning standardised packaging would be to miss a golden opportunity to take a further big step to cut the awful toll of death and disease smoking causes.”
But smokers’ group Forest said the PM had “listened to the hundreds of thousands of people” opposed to plain packets.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4913011/Anger-at-dropped-fag-pack-proposal.html#ixzz2SFxbqmp8
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