Badenoch's PPS Jack Rankin says there is a 'clear case' to cut tobacco duty to slash the black market

From the Newshound archive · first published 6 October 2026.

Jack Rankin, MP for Windsor and Kemi Badenoch's Parliamentary Private Secretary, told a Conservative Party conference fringe event that excessive tobacco duty is depriving the Treasury of up to £4.7 billion a year by pushing smokers toward the illicit market. He pointed to figures suggesting anywhere from one-third to one-half of all cigarettes sold in Britain now change hands illegally, with a black-market pack fetching £3.50 compared with £20 in shops. Rankin drew on the Laffer curve to contend that tobacco taxation has moved beyond the point of peak revenue generation. He further attacked many sin-tax policies as illiberal, laying blame on civil servants who hold a 'religious type belief' in nudging people toward healthier lifestyles.

Rankin acknowledged that cutting tobacco duty would not sit at the top of a future Tory government's priorities.