It would be crass not to be thankful to Jeremy Hunt and the 6 previous Tory Chancellors for keeping Fuel Duty frozen, for the 14th year in succession and at the dying embers of their Conservative administration.
But when nine out of 10 drivers call for a significant cut in this regressive levy and nearly 40 MPs want it lowered too, it shows that he is too scared and economically ignorant of the growth potential in cutting consumer taxes.
The 20% VAT rate was cut for 6 months to 15% in 2020, so why not cut Fuel Duty by 20p till the General Election, to see the positive impact on jobs, GDP, inflation, business investment, and growth taxes? If it doesn’t work, then the experiment has at least been tried. But deep down every Tory knows, it will work.
Cutting National Insurance is just a cheap tax-cutting headline grabber. Cutting fuel duty impacts everyone, including pensioners and therefore the whole economy.
But let’s not be too churlish, Jeremy, thanks for half listening. A few more votes from drivers will return to your beleaguered party, as a result. But cutting it by 20p would have massively improved the chances of your Government being re-elected. And what a politically positive legacy you’d leave to the manifestly anti-driver Labour Government.
And sadly, as one well known Labour MP told me today. ‘Howard you’ve done bloody well for over a decade, hats off to you, enjoy it why you still can! We will be taxing drivers to the hilt when we are in power!’
