From 1st October, tax on factory-made cigarettes will jump from £353.50 to £394.09 per 1,000, an 11.48% increase, or RPI+8.22% (once HMRC’s own assumption is stripped out). Hand-rolling tobacco is due an even bigger hike, rising from £503.80 to £574.30 per kilo, up 13.99%, or RPI+10.73%. This represents the implementation of prior decisions and is now baked into the government’s revenue projections…
In practice this tax hike just makes legal tobacco even more expensive, while illicit tobacco – generally unenforced and widespread, as Guido has noted – will stay considerably cheaper. This is GCSE Economics: the bigger that gap gets, the more tempting the black market becomes, and the harder it is for legitimate retailers to compete. This does not help the Labour government, close to the public health lobby, reduce smoking rates…
Over the summer, in North Somerset, police seized counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco valued at £110,000 at legitimate retail prices. The week before in Walsall, officers found £52,000 of illicit cigarettes hidden in electromagnet-locked compartments built into shop counters, while a Trading Standards operation in Barking and Dagenham uncovered another £102,000 haul. Burnham insists he wants to support the high street, perhaps he can go and get his guitar…
Lee Anderson, speaking to The Sun’s Tom Scotson, reveals the wokest thing he’s ever done: “I once had a vegetarian thought, about becoming a vegetarian. That was quickly dismissed when I had a bacon sandwich…”