The U.K. was once doing so well in leading the way with the goal of becoming a smoke free country by utilising and promoting vaping with the highly respected Royal College Of Physicians doing extensive research and finding that vaping is 95% safer than smoking, that was until ex British prime minister Rishi Sunak came along with his personal vendetta’s and innuendo’s around the subject (he has very close family connections with the World Health Organisation who are extremely anti vaping but that’s another story) Now we have a new prime minister Sir Keir Starmer that just wants money at any cost ( this is the man that scrapped the winter fuel payments to the elderly as soon as he put his foot through the number 10 door which made even the hardest of hearted politicians wince when it was announced causing a rapid U turn) Now he has his greedy little eyes set on vaping and how he can milk it to the hilt while obviously not caring about the outcome and obviously lacking the common sense to know that he is just creating an even bigger black market where public safety goes out of the window and crime rates increases. The vape tax due to take effect on the first of October 2026 is extortionate to the highest degree and has no consideration for the average vaper trying to quit combustible tobacco. Here is the proposal from the U.K. government website below.
Well said @OldGoat 
Reading that now @JimmyLee …
General description of the measure
Vaping Products Duty (VPD) is a new excise duty on vaping products.
The duty will apply to vaping liquid which contains nicotine and either or both glycerine and glycol or any liquid that is intended to be vapourised by a vape and is not a medical or tobacco product.
It will be charged on vaping products that are produced in, or imported into, the United Kingdom.
VPD will be charged a flat rate of £2.20 per 10 millilitres of vaping liquid, regardless of how much nicotine is contained in the product.
Policy objective
The government is committed to reducing the affordability and appeal of vaping products, particularly among young people and non-smokers, while maintaining the financial incentive for smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives.
VPD is being introduced to reduce the number of people taking up vaping, particularly non-smokers and young people, by reducing affordability.
The flat rate is intended to simplify calculations, reporting, and compliance for both businesses and HMRC, alongside reducing the risk of errors or disputes over product classification based on nicotine content.
The problem here is that a vast majority of tobacco smokers in the U.K. are adults on low income’s and the financial incentive to switch to vaping will not be enough for them to make that switch. Starmer admitted that this high level of tax is to raise revenue but he obviously prioritises this over the health of human lives in the U.K. many of whom voted him into power. The constant excuse that everything anti vape is done to curb youth vaping is becoming threadbare as we have already banned disposables and if we had enforced the laws that we already have and hit those vendors selling vapes to underage youths much harder we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place . Lastly although youth vaping rose in the U.K, youth smoking fell but the latter part is hardly ever mentioned. The whole thing stinks to high heaven of corruption and bullsh#t!!