David Dinsmore says pictures are a good way of selling newspapers with two thirds of readers wanting to keep the page

David Dinsmore, the new Sun editor, has vowed to continue printing pictures of topless women on Page 3 as it is a "good way of selling newspapers".

Speaking on the radio station LBC 97.3 on Wednesday morning, Dinsmore said that Page 3 would remain in the paper despite growing criticism from campaigners.

He compared Page 3 to a new exhibition of erotic Japanese paintings at the British Museum in London and said: "This stuff at the British Museum is far more explicit and raunchy."

Dinsmore was reviewing Wednesday's newspapers on Nick Ferrari's show when he mentioned a story in the Times about the London museum introducing a film certificate-style age limit for the new exhibition, Shunga.

He said: "This is Japanese art – Spring Pictures as it's euphemistically called. It's given the editor of the Times the opportunity to put a naked Japanese lady on page 3, which as we know is a good way of selling newspapers."

Asked by Ferrari whether Page 3 was safe under the Sun's new editorship, Dinsmore said: "It is, it is, yes I can tell you that."

The refusal to drop pictures of bare-breasted women on Page 3 is likely to infuriate campaigners who have renewed calls to ban the practice since last year's Leveson inquiry into press ethics. More than 106,000 people have signed an online petition on the site Change.org against Page 3.

Dinsmore, who took over as editor from Dominic Mohan on Monday, later told BBC Radio 5 Live: "Page 3 stays. We did a survey last year and found that two thirds of our readers wanted to keep Page 3. What you find is people who are against Page 3 have never read the Sun and would never read the Sun.

"I agree that you constantly have to keep everything under review, and you have to update and make it relevant for today's reader."

He added: "As far as the exposure goes, it's on Page 3, it's not on the cover. I was flicking through a copy of this month's Vogue and there's Kate Moss topless. I suspect the editor of Vogue won't be questioned on whether topless pictures are on its pages. I think we've got to keep a sense of proportionality about this."

He spoke as News International, the publisher of the Sun, the Times and Sunday Times, announced that it is to rebrand as News UK following the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World in 2011.

Dinsmore told 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell: ""It's been tough. People have been through an extraordinarily hard time and they are continuing to go through it. We will support the people who are bearing the major brunt of this.

"But the other important factor and the thing I'm trying to instil in people is we have to move on forward for the sake of our paper [and] the business."

In a statement, the No More Page Three campaign said it was disappointed that the Sun will not drop pictures of topless women from Page 3.

It said: "We were very excited this week to see David Dinsmore take over as the editor of the Sun. Our hope was that a new editor might see the merits of removing a feature that promotes women as sexual objects, and grab the opportunity to take a major step towards ending media sexism.

"Unfortunately, Dinsmore has today made very clear that Page 3 will stay. However, having heard some of Dinsmore's arguments as to why Page 3 should stay, we are happy to see that the defences for this deeply sexist feature continue to be paper thin."

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