UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced in her budget report that the cost of e-cigarettes and tobacco will increase due to a new round of tax hikes, according to a BBC report on October 31.
Starting in October 2026, a new tax of £2.20 will be levied on every 10 milliliters of e-cigarette liquid. At the same time, the tobacco tax on every 100 cigarettes will increase by the same amount to "maintain the economic incentives for switching from tobacco to e-cigarettes."
In the last budget before losing the general election, the former Conservative government announced its intention to introduce a tax on e-cigarettes and launched a public consultation to discuss these changes. They stated that the purpose of the tax was to make e-cigarettes less accessible to young people and non-smokers, while raising funds for vital public services such as the National Health Service (NHS).
Previously, the government had proposed levying different levels of tax based on the varying levels of nicotine in e-cigarette liquid, but Rifkin opted for a uniform tax rate.
John Dunn, the head of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), has called the e-cigarette tax a "ridiculous move" that punishes those who use e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation method.
"Around three million adults have quit smoking thanks to e-cigarettes, providing strong evidence that they are the most effective method of quitting smoking. This has saved the National Health Service (NHS) millions of pounds that would have been spent on treating smoking-related illnesses."
The newly elected Labour government has announced plans to stop marketing e-cigarette brands to children and intends to ban the use of disposable e-cigarettes by June 2025.
In addition, ministers have pledged to continue former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's plan to ban those born in 2009 or later from buying cigarettes.
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