Reform UK’s Lee Anderson has slammed Labour for creating a “black-market Britain” where illegal migrants are selling knock-off cigarettes for criminal gangs in a vast network across the nation. Invesitgations by the BBC and National Crime Agency (NCA) have lifted the lid on a web of illicit trading of under-the-counter fags which is costing the Government £2.2billion in tax each year.

This month a massive network of more than 100 mini-marts, barbershops and car washes, operating from Dundee to south Devon, was uncovered by a BBC investigation. It found a link between illegal migrants working in these establishments, many of which were also flogging dodgy cigarettes for just £3 to £5 a pack. The Home Office has said it is looking into the findings.

As at October 21, 36,734 people have arrived in the UK illegally by small boat in 2025. Labour has so far failed to stem the tide of arrivals with a further 1,500 arriving since November 7.

Lee Anderson MP: “Illegal migrants are openly selling black‑market cigarettes for £3‑£5 a pack while this weak Starmer government does nothing.

“They’ve turned the country into black‑market Britain, where criminals rake in profits at the taxpayers’ expense. Honest business owners are undercut every day by illegal sellers who don’t care about age restrictions, quality control, or the law.”

Earlier this month, the BBC found a criminal network which was allowing asylum seekers, who are not permitted to work, to take up jobs in plain sight on many British high streets. A shady network of ‘ghost directors’ run the firms, which can take as much as £3,000 a week from selling contraband tobacco.

Reacting to the investigation, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, said: “Illegal working and linked organised criminality creates an incentive for people to come here illegally. We will not stand for it.”

Police and Trading Standards are attempting to fight back against the illegal operations. In October alone, more than £200,000 of illicit tobacco and vapes across Nelson, Blackburn, Oswaldtwistle, Lancaster, Morecambe and Preston, the Sun reports.

Former Met Police Detective Peter Bleksley agreed that the booming illicit cigarette market and the small boats crisis go hand-in-hand, and added hiking tobacco taxes will only make the problem worse.

He said: “The small boats crisis and the growing tobacco black market are inextricably linked. If you come over on a small boat, you can’t get a normal job like you and me – many are forced to the underworld to make money. That’s why flogging fake cigarettes is such an easy option for asylum seekers.

“At the same time, the criminal gangs engaged in human trafficking are also tied to other illegal activities – like black market tobacco sales – it is all part of the same criminal underworld.

“It’s good to see the National Crime Agency conducting raids on these criminal enterprises in recent months. But, I’m concerned the government is going to lose the battle with the black market if it keeps hiking the tax on tobacco, which fuels cheap trade and does nothing to discourage this harmful activity.

“The tobacco black market is already growing, and with illegal immigrants it has a constant stream of workers. If Rachel Reeves keeps raising the duty on cigarettes, normal people are going to be driven into the arms of these criminals because buying smokes off them will be cheaper.”

Labour said it had increased raids by 51% and this year raised the fines for businesses to £60,000 per person found working illegally.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood added that the government has “seized millions of pounds worth of unlicensed goods, banned dodgy directors and removed more than 35,000 people with no right to be in the UK.”