HEALTH chief Dominic Harrison said he was ‘shocked and disappointed’ by news that the government had postponed the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to see how a similar system recently introduced in Australia worked before deciding whether to go ahead in England.

Mr Harrison, director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “I am shocked that this announcement should come from the health minister who is meant to be a champion for improving the health of the population.

“The tobacco industry needs to recruit a lot of young people into smoking in order to replace their consumers who die as a result of consuming their products. Anything we can do to reduce their chances of doing this must surely be good.

“Most parents support a ban on plain packaging – I am very disappointed the government has not acted immediately.”

“We cannot afford to continue to allow full reign to the tobacco industry to recruit smokers and then spend scarce NHS resources in fixing the health problems these private sector organisations have generated.”