Hard-pressed Brits face MORE misery at the pumps as fears mount Rachel Reeves will hike fuel duty
Rachel Reeves is understood to be 'considering everything' at the next Budget after her welfare U-turn — prompting fears for motorists.
Top Tory Dame Priti Patel said a hike would mean a 'betrayal of working people'.
The AA says motorists are already being squeezed, with Vehicle Excise Duty rising by £30 since 2022, plus millions more paid in parking charges, tolls and congestion fees.
AA boss Edmund King also warned any rise at the pumps 'could be catastrophic' for the UK economy.
He added: 'The added danger is increased duty simply fuels higher inflation. The strong message to the Chancellor is 'keep it down'.'
The AA says motorists are already being squeezed from all sides, with Vehicle Excise Duty jumping from £165 to £195 since 2022, and millions more paid in parking charges, tolls and congestion fees.
Drivers of older cars, including popular models like the Ford Fiesta and VW Golf, also face a £160 tax hike when they are eventually forced to upgrade to newer vehicles.
The Sun's Keep It Down campaign has helped freeze fuel duty since 2011 - saving drivers thousands but ministers are under pressure to find cash after billions were pledged to reverse planned welfare cuts.
A Treasury spokesperson said: 'We extended the fuel duty cut this year, saving drivers £3billion, and we're investing £1.6billion to end the pothole plague by fixing up to seven million extra potholes.'
Pressed on whether she would raise taxes, Reeves said: 'Of course there is a cost to the welfare changes that parliament voted through this week and that will be reflected in the budget.
'But I'm also very, very clear that [the] stability that we've been able to return to the economy, which has enabled the Bank of England to cut interests rates four times, is only possible because of the fiscal discipline which is underpinned by the fiscal rules.
"And we'll be sticking to those because they're absolutely vital for the living standards of working people and also the costs that businesses face.'
1
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
22 minutes ago
- BBC News
British Grand Prix: Silverstone boss wants better transport links
The managing director of Silverstone said he was speaking to the government about how it could support the British Grand Prix, including improving transport to the Pringle was at a No.10 Downing Street reception on Wednesday to mark 75 years of Formula 1, along with the Formula One Group CEO Stefano said the race at Silverstone was one of the few on the F1 calendar which does not receive any public funds, but backing for the event was "not just a case of doling out money".At the event, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to hear "what more we as a government can do to support" Formula 1. The Northamptonshire circuit has a contract to host the British Grand Prix until hosted the first ever Formula 1 World Championship race 75 years ago and has hosted the UK leg exclusively since Pringle told BBC Radio Northampton's Annabel Amos: "We've never received public money to help pay the fee [for hosting the Grand Prix] and that is where most countries use their public money, although some have it put into infrastructure."I think we're going to have a conversation with government [about support]".But he said it was not just about money but rather boosting the motorsport industry and infrastructure around the circuit. Mr Pringle said: "The government recognises that the motorsport industry, the high-performance motorsport engineering sector, is extremely important to the United Kingdom."The contribution to gross domestic product from motorsport is growing and growing."So the sort of things I want to talk about are connectivity, about how we can have better public transport to this part of the country. Rail would be good if we could bring people closer to Silverstone by rail."He also said he want to look at how road journeys could be improved, which was also raised by the F1 CEO earlier in the prime minister said Formula 1 was "really important" to the said at Wednesday's reception he wanted to "talk about the future and to invite [Formula 1] to work with us". Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Glasgow Times
24 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow among 'top performing councils' for climate change action
The local authority is now ranked 10th in the country in an assessment from Climate Emergency UK with the London Borough of Islington topping the chart. Glasgow also achieved an A rating from the global Carbon Disclosure Project, which measures environmental impact. Councillor Lana Reid-McConnell raised the council's 'improved ranking' in the Council Climate Action Scorecard at a meeting – asking for the city's environment convenor to comment on it. READ MORE: Major solar scheme delivers clean water to over 700,000 people in Glasgow In response, Councillor Angus Millar said: 'Glasgow is continuing its mission to achieve net zero and we are very proud to have achieved this significant milestone and recognition. 'In the latest 2025 Climate Action Scorecard Assessment conducted by Climate Emergency UK, Glasgow received a score of 64% – a 9% increase on last year. This places us in joint first position in Scotland alongside Edinburgh and among the top performing councils across the UK.' Speaking at a recent full council meeting, the SNP local politician said Glasgow is one of only 62 councils UK-wide (out of 391) to score above 50%. There is an average score of 38%. Councillor Millar added: 'This recognition follows closely on the heels of Glasgow receiving an A rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) confirming our leadership in both climate mitigation and adaptation. We are now just one of 112 global cities on the CDP's A list – placing us in the top 15 per cent of nearly 1,000 reporting cities worldwide.' Councillor Millar continued: 'These achievements are testament to the hard work and dedication of our teams and partners across the city. While we will continue to review and respond to the scorecard's findings this result clearly demonstrates that Glasgow is making strong and measurable progress in tackling the climate and ecological emergency.'
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Just raise tax? No, there's only one way out of this mess
On Wednesday, fears that Donald Trump's 'big beautiful bill' would further swell America's towering public debt triggered a sharp sell-off in government bonds across the advanced world. As anxiety swept global markets, UK gilts were hit especially hard, with US jitters coinciding with Labour's failed welfare bill. Before reversing on Thursday, government borrowing costs in the UK increased by even more than in the US. You would be hard-pressed today to find a serious investor who believes that Rachel Reeves's fiscal arithmetic adds up. The only question ahead of the autumn Budget now seems to be not whether, but by how much, she will raise taxes to balance the books. This week's cover of the New Statesman captures the view from the Left. It reads 'Just raise tax'. Since our ageing population is adding to the demands on public healthcare systems and welfare, Left-of-centre analysts argue that Britain simply needs to face the facts and increase taxes to finance the necessary spending. The solution put forward by the Right is not to raise tax thresholds but to cut them. Have you not heard of the Laffer curve? They say that the way to increase tax receipts is to reduce tax rates. Both sides are wrong. Putting taxes up would not only be wildly unpopular, but it would further weaken Britain's already mediocre growth rate. Cutting taxes in a major way is also a non-starter – Liz Truss tried that already, and remember what happened. Across the whole spectrum of British politics, policymakers have become prisoners of their own economic ignorance when it comes to the causes and solutions of our present fiscal dilemma. Is this situation hopeless? Not at all. There is, in fact, a way to increase tax yields and hence finance higher public spending without raising tax rates. But the debate needs to refocus on the underlying causes of the fiscal gap and escape the siloed thinking about whether tax rates should go up or down, as if that is the only choice. The Government faces a serious constraint because of its promise not to raise rates on the big three taxes – on income, employee National Insurance and VAT. But this does not mean that policymakers have no options to increase the tax yields in these areas. Britain's persistent tax shortfall is a symptom of a persistent growth shortfall, caused by the excessive weight of misguided rules and regulations that arbitrarily slow and even prohibit all sorts of economic activities that would otherwise take place. Remove the economic straitjacket on our factors of production – land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship – and the fiscal problems will be solved. Needlessly restrictive and complex planning and zoning regulations prevent a much-needed increase in the stock of housing, transport infrastructure, factories and offices. We have left the EU only to discover that our Eurosclerosis is home-grown. The surest way to boost the revenues to the Exchequer from income tax and National Insurance would be to implement pro-employment policies that increase the number of people in jobs. Instead, with the Employment Rights Bill, minimum wage increases and the uplift in employers' National Insurance, Labour has delivered the most anti-employment policies in a generation. The unemployment rate has risen from 4.1pc to 4.6pc during Labour's first year in office and looks likely to rise further. Over the coming years, any rise in employment and incomes will be lower than it could have been. Economists have long known that increasing the ratio of capital to workers is the only way to increase productivity in the long run. But capital, which includes vehicles, machines and computers, needs power. The more cheap power is available, the greater the opportunities for capital to deepen and productivity growth. However, under our dogged decarbonisation push, we have reduced the availability of electricity to the economy by around a fifth since the peak in 2005. This decline has occurred due to the planned decommissioning of electricity production facilities powered by coal, oil, and even nuclear. Ahead of the election, Labour was making all the right noises. But the early promises to focus on growth with a pro-business message seem to have given way to a damaging and self-defeating cycle of growth disappointments and tax increases. Fears over higher taxes encourage saving and lacklustre spending and investment, which lowers tax yields across the board. Chronically fearful consumers are saving more than 10pc of their income, despite average annual real wage gains of nearly 2pc for over two years while businesses sit on near-record cash balances. Taxes, like public services, are a second derivative of the real economy. We depend on the profits and investment of British industry, as well as the incomes and spending of private sector workers, to finance our public sector. The UK does not need to raise taxes; it needs to raise supply. Cutting red tape to promote these activities is the path to fiscal sustainability.
