Felix Reeves
Guest Reporter
Conservative MPs will march on 10 Downing Street in the coming days to deliver a petition containing 130,000 signatures to call on the Government to avoid making changes to fuel duty.
On Tuesday, October 22, at 2pm, Saqib Bhatti MBE, other Conservative MPs and FairFuelUK founder Howard Cox will deliver the "Don't Hike Fuel Duty" petition, which received 130,000 signatures.
It comes ahead of the Autumn Statement on October 30, where Chancellor Rachel Reeves will lay out plans to address a £22billion public spending black hole left by the previous Conservative administration.
While the new Labour Government has already warned that tough decisions will lie ahead in the Budget, it has already taken steps to reduce the burden by around £6billion, an HM Treasury spokesperson told GB News.
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However, many experts and drivers fear that the Government could use fuel duty as a way to claw back lost revenue to fill the black hole and raise receipts from petrol and diesel sales.
In 2022, then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that he would be cutting the rate of fuel duty by five pence per litre in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and global oil prices rising.
This has since been extended twice, with the current freeze expected to end in March. Many are now speculating that the Chancellor could allow the freeze to expire, or even increase the rate of fuel duty in line with inflation.
It is estimated that the Treasury has spent £133billion between 2011/12 and 2024/25 to freeze fuel duty rates, according to the Campaign for Better Transport.
Commenting on the plans to deliver the petition to No 10, Howard Cox said: "Along with the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance and an inevitable National Insurance increase on employers, a hike in fuel duty will be economic and political suicide.
"In opposition, Labour always supported a continuing freeze on fuel duty. Now in Government, they see the UK’s driver only as an easy cash cow to pay for their virtue signalling net zero fantasy."
Cox also pointed to a Cebr report which states that the long-term impact of increasing fuel duty could lead to a staggering tax revenue collapse of more than 60 per cent within five years and a fall in GDP.
An opinion poll from FairFuelUK reported that 91.2 per cent of the more than 80,000 people who took part do not want fuel duty to be increased.
Cox and the FairFuelUK campaign held a walk-in reception in Parliament in which 55 Conservative MPs, two Liberal Democrats and one Labour MP attended.
The letter being sent to Chancellor Rachel Reeves also includes statements from FairFuelUK supporters, as well as signatures from high-ranking MPs like Priti Patel, Oliver Dowden, Claire Coutinho and former Roads Minister Richard Holden.
One signatory of the petition, a 76-year-old widowed pensioner, said they had problems with their mobility and relied on their car to get around. They added that if petrol prices rise further, they would be unable to leave their home.
Another person said: "As I live in a rural area of South Wales I have no option [other] than to use my car to get to work as bus service is very limited, and put extra costs on running a car.
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"Makes me think what is the point of making an effort to work shift work when cost of running the car keeps going up. I might as well join the rest of the unemployed who seem to get everything and are better off than I who make a big effort to go to work."
A third concerned motorist said: "I rely on using my car every day to look after both of my parents who have dementia. But please keep it frozen, at the very least.
"UK drivers remain among the highest taxed at the pumps in the world, it is just not fair that the government is already gaining a large proportion of the cost of fuel in tax."
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