JOBS could be at risk from new rules enforcing plain tobacco packaging, an Ilkley-based industry leader has warned.

Cigarettes are now being sold in standardised green packaging, with graphic warnings of the dangers of smoking under new rules designed to prevent young people adopting the habit.

But Mike Ridgway, director of the Consumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance and a former Bradford packaging company executive, said the move could make packaging job cuts “a real possibility”.

He has previously warned that tobacco plain packaging rules would put more pressure on Bradford suppliers, including Sonoco (formerly Weidenhammer Packaging) and Chesapeake, which export much of their output.

Mr Ridgway said: “Job reductions in packaging manufacturing businesses are now real possibilities, with also reduced requirements for engineering and logistical service companies.

“The industry is convinced this regulation is excessive and will not be effective in meeting the objectives of the tobacco control advocates and those wishing to regulate further, with concerns this will extend into other market areas.”

He warned that retailers would see sales fall, while the trade in illicit tobacco products increased.

Mr Ridgway added: “There is no firm evidence that plain packaging influences smoking rates.

“In Australia, where the measures were introduced three-and-a-half years ago, the trend that packaging reduces smoking uptake for young people, or the population generally, is unproven.

“The CPMA us convinced that this trend will accelerate in the UK and across Europe as the measure becomes established and counterfeiters start to copy the less complex and simpler ‘standardised' designs.”

The EU Tobacco Products Directive has allowed the UK to go further with its plain tobacco packaging regulations, which took effect at the end of last week after a failed High Court challenge by four large tobacco companies.