Ross Clark Ross Clark

Ending the fuel duty freeze makes sense

Getty images

Twenty years ago this month Britain briefly endured a different sort of lockdown, as fuel protesters picketed oil refineries and petrol stations ran dry. Supermarket shelves emptied due to panic-buying and some motorists who had failed to fill their tanks found themselves stranded. For the only time during Tony Blair’s premiership the Conservatives very briefly ran ahead of Labour in the polls. The Labour lead was restored, however, when Gordon Brown cut duty and announced he was abandoning the ‘fuel duty escalator’ which had been introduced by Kenneth Clarke.

Memories of those few days in September 2000 explain why governments ever since have been reluctant to raise fuel duties. For the past decade duty on road fuel has been frozen. When Philip Hammond floated the idea of suspending the freeze there was such outrage from Tory backbenchers that in the event he retreated and left it untouched.

Is Rishi Sunak made of firmer stuff? Over the weekend reports emerged that he is thinking of doing what Hammond failed to do. Not only might he abandon the freeze, which would mean petrol and diesel prices rising by two pence a litre in the Budget, in line with inflation. It is reported he might put an extra three pence on top.

Few people like paying tax, and fuel duty is often attacked as a regressive tax, but the reluctance even to increase fuel duties with inflation is out of kilter with other fiscal measures of the past decade. VAT was raised by George Osborne, adding an extra 2.5 per cent to the price of most goods. An election pledge to freeze the TV licence was abandoned.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in