SIR – Bradford newsagent Stephen Hunter claims that people selling illegal cigarettes are robbing him of desperately-needed trade (T&A, December 28). He says at the ports they are more worried about stopping lorries that might have stowaways rather than those carrying illegal cigarettes.

Rightly so. Anyhow, this situation would never have come about if successive UK governments had not consistently increased tobacco duty.

Odds-on they will continue to do so and they won’t even shed a crocodile tear if Mr Hunter and others of his ilk go to the wall.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford