Bosses at local packaging firms say Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has made a ‘common sense’ decision to postpone enforcing cigarettes to be sold in plain packets..

Mr Hunt announced that the Government wants to see how a similar system in Australia works before deciding whether to go ahead in England. The measure was also omitted from the Queen’s Speech in June, which outlined legislation for the year ahead.

Packaging producers, including Chesapeake (formerly Field Packaging) and the Weidenhammer Packaging Group, both of which have tobacco-related operations in Bradford, has campaigned against plain packaging since a public consultation was launched last year by the Department of Health.

They say imposing plain packaging would threaten jobs locally and nationally, and increase the prospects of more counterfeit cigarettes flooding onto the UK market and would do little to deter smoking.

Mike Ridgway a former senior executive of both companies, who has helped lead the campaign, said: “We are very pleased that the Government has made a common sense decision on this matter. There is no evidence that plain packaging has any impact on smoking trends, and even in Australia, where it was introduced last year, smoking levels have remained consistent according to all reports.”

He said the move coincided with a recommendation by the European Parliament’s public health committee not to adopt plain packaging across the EU – although it proposed that health warnings should be increased to 75 per cent of the pack surface area.

Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe (Lab), a former Fields employee, and Shipley MP Philip Davies (Con) have opposed the plain packaging proposals.

Health campaigners reacted with fury to Mr Hunt’s announcement and accused ministers of putting profits ahead of children’s health.