Gordon Brown today gave some relief to motorists and hauliers by confirming the Government will postpone the 2p increase in petrol and diesel duty due in October.
The soaring cost of fuel at the pumps forced Chancellor Alistair Darling to delay the rise after hints by Treasury ministers that the increase, postponed from the Budget in March, would not go ahead.
Mr Darling said the move would help motorists and businesses “get through what is a difficult time for everyone”.
The RAC said: “This is welcome news but it does not go far enough. We would like to see the Chancellor not just postpone future rises but actually cut fuel duty.”
The Freight Transport Association welcomed the announcement as “excellent news”, but stressed it was “small beer” compared with the increased costs faced by hauliers. “It would have been unthinkable of the Chancellor to have gone ahead with this increase in the autumn,” said a spokesman.
The announcement came just hours before MPs were due to debate Tory proposals for a change to fuel tax proposals which would mean duties being reduced if the cost of fuel rises but rise if the price of oil falls.
And it came with just eight days to go to the crucial Glasgow East by-election which MPs believe could decide the future of Gordon Brown’s premiership.
With unleaded petrol selling at around 120p a litre, and diesel at well over 130p, Mr Darling was under severe pressure to give motorists some good news.
However, the Government’s opponents will denounce the timing of the Chancellor’s announcement as cynical since Treasury officials had previously said no decision would be taken until nearer the time the 2p rise was due to take effect at the pumps.
Opposition leaders will also point to Mr Darling’s mini-budget decision to give a £2.7 billion tax hand-out to millions of basic rate taxpayers in an attempt to defuse the 10p tax rate row just days before the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.
Labour went on to lose the by-election to the Tories, and the Scottish National Party say they are confident of winning Glasgow East despite an opinion poll last weekend showing Labour 14 points ahead.
14 Comments
Wow! 2 whole pence.
Wow how very generous of the thieving rat bag!
The man isnt content with ripping the wages out of our hands and the food out of our mouths he still sits on his backside doing “NOTHING”about things effecting this country.
Its time he went.Time he realised he is out of touch with the british people and we dont want him dragging us down to a 3rd world country!
The problems are not of the Governments making. They are caused by irresponsible speculators in the City, global increases in commodity prices and greedy companies passing on the increased costs to their customers in order to maximise profits. But that’s capitalism for you. If you want it changing don’t vote the Tories in at the next election.
its not the price of a barrel thats the problem its the tax we pay how this prime minister can ask opec to produce more is beyond me opec should tell him to sod off now he hasnt put the 2p on it he believes hes doing us a good turn what rubbish
Wow!!!
I bet the incompetents think this will win them a Election!!
As said above its not the price of fuel it’s the amount of rip-off tax we pay on it.
Its not the duty thats a problem. Been a while since we had any duty increase - fuel prices have been rising though because it costs more for the oil.
Cut the oil price on the global markets and fuel prices will drop.
If there was no fuel duty we’d still have petrol costs of heading towards £4 a gallon.
But to cut tax on one part, where do they cut services or increase taxes to compensate?
£5k a year road tax? 35% standard rate income tax?
6 martin if you produce something would you sell it for a price only for the government to tax it more than you make would you drop your costs why should the oil producers want it to drop also its not only duty we have 17.5% vat on top on the continent fuel is cheaper in most countries and i may be wrong here but doesnt that include their road tax as regards increasing taxes elsewhere to compensate if this country cut back on hair brained ideas that would be a start
Yes, we have 17.5% VAT. Cheaper than some countries.
Brings in quite a bit of money to government coffers. Money which we then get spent on such things as education, health, defence, councils etc.
Along with the hare brained ideas.
But to scrap some taxes you have to cut elsewhere in spending or else add the taxes to something else.
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
8 martin yes these things have to be paid for but if you run a company dont you cut waste before increase the price and again i ask why should the oil companies increase production to appease brown if the barrel of oil went back to the price say 6 months ago you would now have the 2p on allready
What a coincidence that there just happens to be a by election next week. Darling has made it sound like the hard pressed motorist has been given some respite; I don’t think so. Why hasn’t he reduced fuel duty? Could it be that the government have squandered billions of pounds and there is nothing in reserve?
The changes to vehicle tax and the 10 pence tax debacle have underlined yet again that this vacuous government don’t live in the real world. I am fed up of being patronised by this government.
The sooner Brown the Clown and the New Labour circus leave town the better.
how about brown the clowns business sense when he sold the gold ha ha ha
9 Phil, if the price of oil went back to what it was 6 months ago then we’d have lower prices for petrol - and 2p a litre increase would still be less than what we are paying now.
Great, the government don’t increase the cost. They don’t need to, the cost is going up anyway.
The petrol price has doubled, per litre, in the last 10 years. Mainly because of oil price increases not fuel duty.
well martin its good that the oil producing countries get their fare share then isnt it also arnt we as an oil and gas producers reaping these high price rewards mind you how brown wastes it its probably all ready been given to china or india like most other things
Cant wait until the Conservatives win the next election- stop Labour wasting money on PCSO’s and other rubbish community schemes- more money needs to be spent on rural areas rather than inner city areas like us (Wolverhampton) as we are finished anyway.