Motorists are being warned that the Chancellor could raise fuel duty in the upcoming budget in October.
After the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that when Labour took power, they discovered things are far “worse than we ever imagined” after they found a “£22billion black hole in the public finances.”
Starmer said that the public will have to accept the “short- term pain for long-term good.”
“It’s not the position I want to be in, but we have to end the politics of the easy answer that solves nothing.
The Prime Minister said on Tuesday the budget in October is “going to be painful.”
In March 2022 the former Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt introduced a 5p per litre fuel duty cut, prior to this fuel was frozen at 57.95p since March 2011.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams warned that Rachel Reeves has “no option but to put fuel duty back up to 58p a litre in October’s Budget.”
Williams added, “She knows the 5p discount is losing the Treasury £2 billion a year. She also knows drivers were overcharged by a staggering £1.6 billion last year according to the Competition and Markets Authority’s recent report.
“We’d normally be against any increase in duty, but we’ve long been saying drivers haven’t been benefiting from the current discount due to much higher-than-average retailer margins.
“As more and more electric vehicles come on to the roads, the Government will need to tax drivers differently.
“We think replacing fuel duty with a pay-per-mile system as soon as possible is the way forward as then the only tax levied on fuel would be VAT. This would give retailers nowhere to hide.”
