Big Ben traders sell smuggled cigarettes

Smuggled cigarettes are being openly sold by street traders in the shadow of Big Ben.

Photographs taken secretly of traders on Westminster Bridge are to be used by tobacco manufacturers to lobby for a two-pronged attack on smuggling.

They are calling for a fresh clampdown on contraband, coupled with a £1-a-pack reduction in tobacco taxes at the next Budget.

The Tobacco Manufacturers' Association claims a fifth of cigarettes smoked in the UK are smuggled, losing the Treasury £4 billion a year in unpaid duties.

Cigarette duty has been increased to encourage smokers to give up the habit, estimated to cost the NHS £1.7 billion and cause 120,000 premature deaths a year.

But smuggled tobacco is booming and sells for a fraction of the cost. New European Union regulations mean Britons can now cross the Channel to buy up to 3,200 cigarettes at discount prices for personal consumption in one trip.