IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon has written for Spiked criticising the new tax on e-cigarette liquid.

Christopher said:

“If it discourages non-smokers from taking up vaping, it is surely bound to discourage smokers from doing likewise. This is exactly what economic studies of e-cigarette taxes have shown.

“Like butter and margarine, cigarettes and e-cigarettes are direct substitutes. If you double the price of butter, people will buy more margarine.

“By taxing e-cigarettes at a prohibitively high level, the government has shown itself to be not only deeply illiberal – that has been obvious for some time – but also to be cynical, greedy and spiteful. Its commitment to public health has been exposed as a sham. And Jeremy Hunt will go down in history as the man who taxed people for giving up smoking.”

Read Christopher’s full piece here.