Sunak’s Missing Millions

“To help ensure the success of the smokefree generation plan,” said ex-PM Rishi Sunak, “£30 million new funding a year will be provided to bolster enforcement agencies – including Border Force, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Trading Standards – to implement these measures and stamp out opportunities for criminals.”

The boost in funding to tackle the black-market supply of illicit vapes to teens came alongside the now completely false promise of funding to build 40 brand new General Hospitals.

“As any parent or teacher knows, one of the most worrying trends at the moment is the rise in vaping among children,” Sunak stated. “There was overwhelming support among responses to the government’s consultation for a disposable vape ban, with nearly 70% of parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and the general public supportive of the measure.”

At the time, POTV News reminded readers of the absent levelling up funding pledge and the complete lack of promised new homes. 

Ministers Victoria Atkins, Andrea Leadsom and Steve Barclay all had it in for vaping and were only listening to a very small group of people. The entire approach was inept.

One such group was the Local Government Association – who would be the lucky recipients of this £30 million. The LGA praised the joint approach to black market vapes across the four nations: ““The consequences of divergent policies on single-use vapes could include disparities in regulations and enforcement across different UK nations. The 'four nations' multilateral approach is seen as an experiment that may lead to a less confrontational method of governing the UK internal market. However, the effectiveness of this approach remains uncertain, and lasting impacts may require significant reforms to UKIMA or a change in policy at the Westminster level.”

It celebrated all of the proposals from the Sunak government, including the pledge to ban disposables.

“There appears to be no clear evidence to support claims that a black market would develop, and that a ban would flood the market with illicit and unregulated vapes,” the LGA said.

No clear evidence?

How about the raging turf war taking place in Australia, which was pretty well documented at the time it made its ridiculous statement? Murders and fire bombs are now a weekly occurrence in a country which thought it could enact a prohibition on a product that reduced harm to its users and was in high demand. Gang related crime that was created by the lies of the Australian politicians and public health experts.

Dr Colin Mendelsohn said that just the state of Victoria's ecig black market is now valued at between AU$550 million to $1 billion per year.

As it stood when Sunak made the £30 million pledge, council Trading Standards departments were already struggling to fight against the black market tide.

Leading online retailer Vape Club had issued Freedom of Information requests to all departments around the UK and, from the replies, showed that a ban on disposable vapes would be unenforceable because £30 million would be a drop in the ocean.

The company found that there has been “a near 20-fold increase in the number of illicit vapes seized by councils across the UK since 2020”, demonstrating the crisis the country is facing without adequate funding and sensible legislation.

One such solution is the implementation of a licensing scheme for the sale of vapes – something the industry has been screaming out for.

Dan Marchant, co-founder of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) and Managing Director of Vape Club, which has led on the development of the proposed scheme and conducted the FOI investigation, told Planet of the Vapes: “It doesn’t matter what legislation the government introduces, whether the newly announced ban on disposables or any future restrictions, a robust and balanced licensing system is critical to ensuring the law can actually be enforced and for ushering in a new era of responsibility, accountability and best practice.”

Here we are, nine months and a new government later. Where is Sunak’s £30 million of support? Nowhere, that’s where, with a new administration doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Photo Credit:

• Sunak image – public domain - https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/media/janet-yellens-first-foreign-trips-as-treasury-sec-4-cropped-48cba4, Tory trees from the Conservative Party, missing mi££ions from author’s bank account

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.