Vape shops ‘can apply for skilled worker visas’ – despite fears stores are being used as ‘fronts’ for organised crime

E-cigarette shops in the UK have access to a fast-track skilled worker visa scheme designed to recruit ‘highly skilled’ workers, despite fears that the shops are being used as fronts for organized crime.

The Home Office’s public register of licensed sponsors for worker and casual worker migration routes lists almost 80 different vaping companies across the UK.

The program means businesses can apply for a skilled worker visa, limited to employees in postgraduate occupations, making it easier to sponsor and hire foreign workers.

It comes despite widespread concern among senior Tory MPs that e-cigarette shops in the UK are being used as fronts for organized crime gangs.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called on the Government to ‘immediately’ remove the sponsorship status of e-cigarette shops and described their inclusion on the Home Office list as ‘a complete joke’.

Just last week, the Government announced a £30m crackdown on ‘dangerous high street shops’.

A major operation carried out by the National Crime Agency has listed e-cigarette shops as one of the targets of a three-year crackdown targeting money laundering, tax evasion and illegal operation.

The government has announced it will recruit civil servants from Greater Manchester, Kent, the West Midlands and Essex.

The hotspots for e-cigarette shops in the UK are Manchester, London, Birmingham and Bolton, but they are increasingly present in towns across the country.

The Government plan, released on 19 May, said: ‘The NCA estimates that at least £12bn of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, with £1bn being laundered through high street businesses such as mini-marts, barber shops, vape shops and sweet shops.

‘Some businesses are also linked to the sale of counterfeit goods, tax evasion, illegal work and the supply of illegal drugs.

‘Thousands of businesses are expected to be raided, hundreds arrested and millions in cash seized as a national intensification campaign and will be put on a permanent basis each year to ensure co-ordinated implementation of the campaign across the country.’

Conservative MP Chris Philp He told the Telegraph: ‘Labour’s claims that they only issue immigration visas to highly skilled people are clearly nonsense. Here are dozens of e-cigarette stores allowed to sponsor migrant workers.

‘Many of these e-cigarette shops are fronts for organized crime, and even the few that are legitimate do not employ highly skilled workers at all.’

An application to sponsor an employee through the Home Office skilled worker visa requires extensive evidence from employers, including evidence that businesses offer genuine work of the required skills and pay.

Although e-cigarette companies are listed on the public register, they do not necessarily use sponsor licenses and their inclusion does not mean that any sponsored visa applications will be approved in the future.

Trading Standards predicted that half of all convenience stores and e-cigarette retailers in some areas were linked to organized crime.

A Home Office spokesman told the Telegraph: ‘Net immigration has fallen by 82 per cent following record immigration under the previous government.

‘Although having a sponsorship license is not a guarantee of a visa, we will never tolerate abuse. That’s why we’ve tightened the requirements, including doubling the period during which employers who commit repeat offenses are prevented from sponsoring workers.

‘Meanwhile, skilled sponsor cancellations have increased, more than 100 professions have had their access to overseas recruitment cut off, and the skilled salary threshold has been raised.’