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Commenting on Boris Johnson’s pledge, if elected Leader of the Conservative Party, to launch a comprehensive review into the effectiveness of ‘sin taxes’, the Institute of Economic Affairs’s Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon said:

“A lot of tax cuts have been promised during the leadership campaign, not all of them sensible. The priority should be slashing the taxes which hit the poor hardest and punish people for their lifestyles.

“It is encouraging to see that Mr Johnson is against the milkshake tax and will launch a review of the former Chancellor’s sugar tax. He should also look at cutting Britain’s extortionate taxes on alcohol and tobacco. It’s about time politicians started standing up to the killjoys.”

Notes to editors:

For media enquiries please contact Kate Andrews: kandrews@iea.org.uk | 07476 915 072 or Nerissa Chesterfield: nchesterfield@iea.org.uk | 07791 390 268

Further IEA reading on sin taxes:

• Of Course Sin Taxes are Regressive, by Christopher Snowdon
• Killjoys: A Critique of Paternalism, by Christopher Snowdon
• Aggressively Regressive: The ‘sin taxes’ that make the poor poorer, by Christopher Snowdon

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems and seeks to provide analysis in order to improve the public understanding of economics.

The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.