Sky-high taxes on smokers 'fuels cigarette smuggling'

SOARING cigarette taxes are fuelling a huge black market for tobacco, a Reform MP has warned.

- By Christian Calgie

Lee Anderson said illicit cigarette smuggling is costing the country millions in lost tax revenue, accelerating the decline of high street stores and affecting the NHS.

Ahead of the Budget, he has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to stop the surging trade in counterfeit products by ending the war on smokers' wallets.

Writing for the Daily Express, the Reform UK frontbencher claims the black market has "exploded over the last decade", with illegal products now available in almost every British town.

Mr Anderson, MP for Ashfield, Notts, said: "Do we side with the gangs who peddle cheap fags, or with the honest shopkeeper trying to keep the lights on? Do we keep pretending it's someone else's problem, or do we admit that the black market is robbing this country blind?"

A recent report from professional services network KPMG revealed that illicit cigarette use in the UK has peaked over the past two years, with one in four consumed now being from the black market.

The UK's trade in counterfeit tobacco is now the third largest in Europe, by both volume and the amount of cigarettes smoked.

Trading Standards has been battling to police the illicit trade, seizing 46 million black market cigarettes and some 12,600kg of hand-rolling tobacco in the past three years.