No evidence exists to show that Government proposals for the plain packaging of cigarettes will lessen their appeal, a think-tank has claimed.
The Adam Smith Institute has published a report arguing that the plans will do nothing for public health and are "profoundly illiberal".
The Government is launching a public consultation on putting cigarettes in plain packets so all tobacco products look alike.
But the institute, which describes itself as the UK's leading libertarian think tank, said the policy would set a dangerous precedent because plain packaging could then be extended to other products such as alcohol and fatty foods.
Christopher Snowdon, who wrote the report Plain Packaging: Commercial expression, anti-smoking extremism and the risks of hyper-regulation, said: "It is extraordinary that a Government which claims to be against excessive regulation should be contemplating a law which even the provisional wing of the anti-smoking lobby considered unthinkable until very recently.
"Plain packaging is the most absurd, patronising and counter-productive policy yet advanced under the disingenuous pretext of 'public health'.
But Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "Why would the tobacco industry and its allies be so vehemently opposed to plain packaging if they weren't so frightened that plain packaging would work? The Adam Smith Institute, by publishing this report, is acting as the mouthpiece for the tobacco industry, as it has done on many previous occasions.
"It should come as no great surprise that the institute takes a pro-tobacco line but it should be more transparent about its association with Big Tobacco."
Sarah Woolnough, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said one in four deaths from cancer are due to smoking, saying: "Chris Snowdon misunderstands the case for plain packaging and is mistaken about the aim of the policy. The policy is not intended to reduce the smoking rate today. It's about stopping the next generation from taking up smoking. It will give millions of children one less reason to start.
"This report ignores the evidence that packaging is a vital part of marketing, as he could learn from tobacco industry documents."
