Health secretary Andrew Lansley is facing criticism from within his own party after announcing plans to begin a consultation that could strip cigarette packets of all branding.
The consultation which starts on Monday will examine whether tobacco companies should be forced to sell their products in plain packages, legislation which has been attempted in Australia.
Lansley said the government had a responsibility to examine initiatives that might reduce smoking. "Each year it (smoking) accounts for over 100,000 deaths in the UK and one in two long-term smokers will die prematurely from a smoking disease."
Legislation on plain packaging would be the latest in a series of measures against smoking including the ban on advertising and smoking in public places, graphic health warnings on packets, the ban on display in shops and annual tax rises.
But Lansley's initiative was fiercely criticised from within the Conservative party. Mark Field, MP for the Cities of London and Westminster said the introduction of plain packaging would infringe the rights of international business and set a dangerous precedent.
"I suspect plain packaging will result in other sorts of negative impacts, including the increased health threat posed by counterfeit tobacco, the encouragement of smuggled products and damaging competition," he wrote in the Conservative Home website.
"Indeed, the Treasury is already losing around £3bn a year from tobacco that has evaded UK duty; criminal gangs operating a contraband supply chain at the expense of legitimate businesses. "
Deborah Arnott, the head of Action on Smoking and Health, welcomed the plan. "The consultation is just the first step, putting us in pole position to be the first European nation to put tobacco in plain, standardised packs. Cigarettes are not like sweets or toys and should not be sold in fancy colourful packaging which makes them appealing to children. Cigarettes are full of toxins and cause fatal diseases: plain, standardised packaging makes this explicit."
Last year, Australia approved laws to introduce plain packaging to reduce the attractions of smoking, but three of the world's four largest tobacco groups, Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco are challenging the law in court.
Alex Parsons, a spokesman for Imperial Tobacco said that plain packaging would be "a disproportionate step". He told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "There is no credible evidence to substantiate what the government is saying which is that people make the decision to smoke or continue smoking because of the colour of the packs of the cigarettes they buy. Quite frankly, it is a preposterous notion."
