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By Bloomberg

Cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco will have to be sold in standardized packs in England starting in May next year, the U.K. government announced, bringing the country into line with practice in Australia.

Parliament will be asked to pass the relevant legislation before May’s general election, Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said in a statement late Wednesday.

“It’s an election year and plain packaging has taken on political football status,” said James Bushnell, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas. “Amid all the rhetoric, plain packaging implementation is yet to reach the acid test. Once the U.K. government passes legislation, it is likely the tobacco companies will sue.”

The proposed rules specify mandatory colors for packaging - - dull brown for the outside, white for the inside -- and permit only specified text, such as the brand and type. The packs would continue to carry health warnings.

“The policy is a proportionate and justified response to the considerable public-health harm from smoking tobacco,” Ellison said. “Almost 80,000 people in England alone die every year from ill health caused by smoking. It places an enormous strain” on the state-funded National Health Service, she said.

Pediatrician Cyril Chantler, who conducted a review of standardized packaging for the U.K. government, said last year it was likely it would lead to “a modest, but important reduction” in the uptake and prevalence of smoking in Britain.

Shares Drop

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the largest U.K. cigarette maker, is “very surprised and disappointed,” spokesman Simon Evans said by e-mail. British American Tobacco Plc, its nearest domestic competitor, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. Imperial Tobacco shares fell 1.6 percent to 2,958 pence in early London trading, while BAT slipped 0.5 percent to 3,670.5 pence.

The British government has responsibility for health care only in England, the largest of the four nations making up the U.K., so ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be asked to give their consent to applying the same regulations.

Australia became the first country to introduce uniform packaging for cigarettes on Dec. 1, 2012.

“The data from Australia do not support plain packaging as a way to reduce smoking prevalence,” said Eric Bloomquist, an analyst at Berenberg, adding that the policy will be challenged in the European Union.

His comments were echoed by Imperial Tobacco’s Evans. “More than two years in to the failed plain packaging experiment in Australia there’s simply no reason to think it will work,” Evans said.