UK parliament votes to ban cigarette pack branding

Cigarette packets in the UK will not be allowed to carry brand labels from May 2016, after a landmark vote by MPs.

A last-ditch effort by 104 Conservative MPs to thwart the move failed, with 367 backing plain packaging and 113 opposed.

The decision was welcomed by health campaigners.

The British Lung Foundation said, ''The moment companies are denied the right to use glitzy packaging to recruit smokers, is a moment of celebration.''

Action on Smoking and Health praised MPs for resisting the ''bully-boy tactics'' of the tobacco giants, who had pledged legal action against the move.

JTI International, maker of Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Camel, warned that plain packaging was a smugglers' charter. According to JTI managing director Daniel Torras, illegal tobacco funded serious crime and terrorism, stole trade from legal businesses and made cheap cigarettes accessible to children.

According to Philip Morris, makers of Marlboro,  the ban ''vilifies'' goods bought by well-informed adults.

Labour had vowed to clamp a ban if it won the general election in May. According to shadow health minister Luciana Berger, it was a ''fantastic victory for children's health''.

According to professor Ann McNeill, a tobacco addiction expert at King's College London, this historic ­decision closed off one of the last routes the industry used to promote cigarettes as alluring.

UK's parliament had approved legislation banning cigarette packs branding, which drew immediate threats of legal action from the country's $38 billion tobacco industry.

The move aimed to improve public health and cut the number of child smokers, but the measure cut also crimp tobacco industry profits.

The move by UK follows Australia, which in 2012 enacted a law forcing the sale of cigarettes in plain olive green packaging with images showing the damaging effects of smoking (See: Australia may be hit with the third WTO suit over tobacco packaging)

UK lawmakers effectively put an end to political debate, private lobbying and public consultation by passing the legislation yesterday.

The proposal would still need to be debated and passed by the upper house of parliament before it became law.

According to Imperial Tobacco Group, if the measure became law the firm would be "left with no choice but to defend our legal rights in court".

The new rules would initially come into effect in England only, though the Welsh government said it too would take similar action and Northern Ireland and Scotland were considering a similar step.