Lee Anderson blasts sky-high cigarette taxes for fuelling black market

Reform UK's Lee Anderson has warned that soaring cigarette duty is fuelling an enormous black market for tobacco, which is cheating the taxman and costing the NHS. Ahead of the Budget, Mr Anderson has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to end the surging trade in counterfeit fags by ending the war on smokers' wallets.

Writing for the Express, the Ashfield MP claims the black market has "exploded over the last decade", with illegal produce now available in almost every British town. Mr Anderson warns the growth in the black market is cheating both the taxman and local shopkeepers playing by the rules, and leaving the NHS to pick up the bill. A recent report from KPMG this summer revealed that illicit cigarette consumption in the UK has peaked over the last two years, with one in four sticks consumed now being illicit.

The UK's trade in counterfeit tobacco is now the third-largest in Europe by both volume and the proportion of cigarettes smoked, despite ranking in the bottom 20% for smoking prevalence.

Hotspots include London, the West Midlands and the North-west, with about £3.15billion in tax revenue lost from the exchequer as a result.

Trading Standards now faces an enormous uphill battle to police the illicit trade, seizing 46million black market cigarettes and 12,600kg of hand-rolling tobacco in the last three years.

In 2023-24 alone, more than 19million illicit cigarettes and 5,103kg of hand-rolling tobacco were seized by the body, worth £11.7million.

Mr Anderson warned that as well as costing the country millions in lost tax revenue, it is further fuelling the decline of high streets and fuelling criminal gangs.

He warned: "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?"

Lord Michael Bichard, chairman of National Trading Standards, said: "Trading Standards has seized nearly 1.2million illegal vapes and more than £26million worth of illicit tobacco so far. But the reality is further action is necessary to remove more illegal - and in many cases dangerous - products from sale."

This week, a new survey by the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association of 6,000 UK smokers found that one in five admit to buying tobacco from illegal sources, rising to just shy of one in four in London.

This comes as tax receipts from tobacco products continue to fall by up to £1billion each year.

The average price of a 20-pack of illicit cigarettes is reportedly between £3 and £6, while the legal counterpart is a whopping £16.60.

Rupert Lewis, director of the TMA, accused the Government of "burying its head in the sand" over the issue.

"There is a growing disconnect between the public's tolerance to buy illicit tobacco the product - because it is so much cheaper than legal tobacco, and the negative impact that the wider illicit tobacco industry is having across the UK, with 63% of those surveyed believing illicit tobacco has links to organised crime gangs (which also trade in drugs and people trafficking) and 69% believing that cheap illicit tobacco is making it easier for children to take up smoking.

"If the Government is serious about reducing smoking rates, it needs to execute a twin-track strategy of pursuing stronger 'zero tolerance' enforcement action against those criminals trading illicit tobacco, along with prioritising more investment in targeted education programmes, youth access prevention and smoking support services, and campaigns to educate smokers on less harmful alternative nicotine products."