Since Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Dan Tomlinson was elected last year, a whopping 110,000 illegal cigarettes have been seized in his constituency of Chipping Barnet. A reminder that illicit tobacco sales burn a £2.2 billion hole in the Treasury’s coffers each year…
According to new FOI releases, Barnet Council officers seized the illegal cigarettes in 24 raids, with packs selling for as little as £6. Last month alone, raids in area netted nearly £70,000 of illicit vapes and other products. Last year Reeves raised tobacco duty by 2% for cigarette packets and by 10% for hand-rolled tobacco, inevitably fuelling demand for cheaper black market stock. Reeves is expected to raise Tobacco Duty once again in the Winter Budget…
Guido need hardly point out the irony in Tomlinson, who grips taxation levers as Exchequer Secretary, representing a constituency awash with black market trade. It’s a case study in what will happen as the generational smoking ban creeps in – the cash-in-hand shadow economy will explode…
Local government minister Alison McGovern told LBC that the BBC should apologise to Trump:
“If they’ve made an editorial mistake, then they should apologise. And, more broadly, I think if they’ve made errors, I think the answer to that is better quality journalism, and to invest in that journalism so that we can have the standard of programmes we all want from the BBC.”