Campaigners have urged the Government to abandon plans to introduce plain packaging of tobacco.

A leading industry publisher has called for more groups like Forest "to voice their support for smokers/vapers' rights".

The smokers’ group Forest will tonight mark its 35th anniversary with a special smoker-friendly party in London.

The smokers' group Forest has slammed calls for Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and 20,000 acres of parks in the capital to go smoke free.

A petition against plain packaging of tobacco has gained more than 100,000 signatures and more than 50,000 people have personally written to the Prime Minister opposing the initiative.

Forest has described as “inexplicable” a decision by the Advertising Standards Authority to reject a complaint about a television advertisement for the NHS smoke free campaign.

Forest will co-host a special event with libertarian campaign group Conservatives for Liberty at the Tory conference in Birmingham in September.

Conservative candidates in marginal seats, including public health minister, Jane Ellison, risk electoral defeat because of the government’s nanny state policies, according to a new survey of English voters commissioned by the Democracy Institute, a politically independent think tank.

Campaigners have urged the government to keep an "open mind" on plain packaging of tobacco following the announcement of a consultation on draft regulations.