LONDON – In England, the battle over plain packaging for tobacco products is continuing to heat up. Various pro-smoking and libertarian groups have condemned the government’s surprise decision to bring forward a law on plain cigarette packaging before the general election.

This week, British health minister Jane Ellison said that the government would vote before May on regulations forcing tobacco firms to introduce plain packaging, before the end of a consultation exercise about the idea.

According to the leader of the U.K. Independence party, the proposal represents meddling in the free market and would damage the economy. “Plain packaging is an appalling intrusion into consumer choice and the operation of the free market. Jobs and tax revenue would suffer,” he said in a tweet. In a later op-ed, he referred to Australia’s experience with plain-packaging since 2012, during which time household expenditure on tobacco has actually increased, along with the black market for cigarettes.

According to an article in The Guardian, Simon Clark, director of the pro-smoking group Forest, claimed there was “huge public opposition to the measure” citing a petition against plain packaging signed by more than 250,000 people. “We find it bizarre that the government should announce this when the government hasn’t even reported on the consultation [study] they held last year. There will be a lot of people out there who will be asking what’s the point of a consultation if you are simply going to ignore the public response or pretend it didn’t happen,” he said in a radio interview.