The Scottish Government is to push ahead with plans to put cigarettes in plain packaging and introduce a minimum price for alcohol, despite both ideas being ditched at Westminster.

SNP ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the policies yesterday.

Michael Matheson, Minister for Public Health, said there was strong evidence ensuring tobacco was sold in plain cartons could help prevent young people smoking. The Scottish Government said it was also fully committed to introducing a minimum cost for a unit of alcohol.

It emerged yesterday neither policy will be pursued at Westminster before the 2015 General Election.

David Cameron is under increasing pressure to explain the decision to abandon the plans amid questions around the role of his adviser Lynton Crosby, an Australian public relations expert who has advised the tobacco industry in the past.

The Prime Minister's spokesman refused to be drawn on whether Mr Cameron and Mr Crosbie had spoken about plain packaging, saying only the Conservative leader had not been lobbied on the issue.

Earlier, Conservative Westminster Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans for plain packets for tobacco products in England had been postponed. Officially, the Government wants to see how a similar system recently introduced in Australia works before deciding whether to proceed.

Coalition sources made it clear no decision on cigarette packaging would be taken before the next General Election, the contest the Tories have hired Mr Crosby to help them win. He is reported to have told Mr Cameron to get the "barnacles off the boat", thought to be a reference to policies which are not core Conservative issues.

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to formally confirm next week the Coalition has dropped plans for minimum pricing of alcohol in England.

Labour's shadow public health minister Diane Abbott called the decisions a "disgraceful U-turn". Asking "what happened?", she said: "We suspect Lynton Crosby happened."

Both decisions prompted an angry reaction from health campaigners.

Conservative backbencher Sarah Wollaston, who also works as a GP, said more lives would be ruined for the sake of political gain.

She called the moves a "tragic waste of an opportunity" adding "RIP public health".

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, described the move on tobacco as bewildering. "Cigarette packaging is designed to make a deadly product attractive to young people and create future generations of smokers," she said.

"Over 200,000 young people have started smoking since the Government began its consultation on standardised packaging, while more than 100,000 people have died as a result of their habit. Using expensively designed packaging to sell cigarettes to young people is wrong and should be stopped".

British Heart Foundation chief executive Simon Gillespie said: "This was the chance for a real show of strength, courage and confidence, but instead the Government has capitulated in the face of industry pressure."

Dr Charles Saunders, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland, said it was good news the Scottish Government was not shelving its plans.

"As doctors we see first-hand the devastating effects of tobacco addiction, therefore we support moves to reduce the number of people taking up this deadly habit," he said.

It raises the prospect of headaches for tobacco manufacturers and importers alongside fears of warehouses of alcohol in places near the England-Scotland border cashing in on price differences.