A SHOPKEEPER who claims tobacco smuggling costs him £2m a year is embarking on a cross-Channel mission to show how the trade is destroying local shops.

According to Customs and Excise, the black market is costing the country £4bn a year in lost revenue.

County Durham shopkeeper Barrie Taylor says the problem is so bad in the North-East that he has had to make staff redundant from his seven shops to compensate for the loss in trade.

Mr Taylor is regional spokesman for the Tobacco Alliance, which is calling on the Government to cut the high tobacco taxation rates to bring them in line with the rest of Europe.

The alliance, which represents 21,000 independent retailers, has organised a trip by shopkeepers and MPs to cut-price tobacco warehouses in Belgium to draw attention to the problem.

Mr Taylor said: "I've got seven shops selling cigarettes and I should be making at least £2m more a year. I've been going 50 years and I don't want to get rid of staff - but we've had to let people go and cut down hours for others. It's not nice - my staff are suffering."

He added: "This trip is an important opportunity to ensure that decision makers in Westminster truly understand how small, community-based shops, such as my own, are struggling to stay in business as a direct result of the Government's smuggler-friendly taxation policy.

"Ministers cannot escape the fact that by keeping the UK's tobacco rates so high in comparison with the rest of Europe, they are responsible for fuelling the boom in illegally-imported tobacco."

In Belgium, a typical packet of 20 cigarettes costs £1.90, compared to £4.39 in the UK. Mr Talylor will be making the trip on January 30.