Fuel Duty

James Wild Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Wild (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

Madam Deputy Speaker,

“In these difficult circumstances, while the cost of living remains high and with a backdrop of global uncertainty, increasing fuel duty next year would be the wrong choice”—[Official Report, 30 October 2024; Vol. 755, c. 817.]

Those are not my words, as it happens, but I agree with them. In fact, that was what the Chancellor said in her first Budget. Having increased taxes by £40 billion in that Budget, people might have thought that that would be the end of the talk of fuel tax hikes. However, this Government’s approach is all about higher spending, taxation and borrowing, so it was not that surprising when, in her second Budget, the Chancellor set out plans to scrap the 5p a litre cut introduced by the Conservative Government in 2022—a cut, remember, introduced in the wake of price increases after Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. We introduced that cut to recognise that, for rural communities such as mine in North West Norfolk, a car or van is a lifeline, not a luxury. They connect farmers to markets and help children get to school, as my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey) said. They allow people to get to work or to health appointments, and they keep rural enterprises in business. Every penny added to the cost of fuel has a bigger impact in areas where public transport is limited and journeys are longer.

This would be the first fuel duty rise for 15 years, taking £3.6 billion from hard-pressed motorists. Unless Labour Members support our motion, that tax increase will take effect from September this year, and the average family will pay £150 more a year. The Road Haulage Association estimates that the increase would add £2,300 a year to the operating costs of an HGV. It is little wonder that it described the measures as a “hammer blow” for many small businesses.

It gets worse. Labour Members often like to talk about the past 14 years of Conservative Government, but one thing we did over those 14 years was to freeze fuel duty. From next April, this Government will end that freeze, and inflation-linked rises will follow, making the end of support for motorists that is calculated to have been worth £120 billion over the period of Conservative government. Through this debate, the Conservatives are once again speaking up for the British people. My right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition challenged the Prime Minister about fuel duty increases last week, but he wanted to talk about anything but that topic—as he did again this week. Under pressure, he is beginning to shift his position. He has said that the increase is now under review. Where is his leadership? It is utterly lacking.

And where are Labour Members? No Labour Back Bencher is prepared to stand up and speak in this debate. Even the hon. Member for Rugby (John Slinger) is notable by his absence. They will be whipped today to vote against our motion, as they were on the family farm tax, the winter fuel payment cuts, a national inquiry on grooming gangs, and more. Given their absence, I suspect that they sense another U-turn is coming. The Minister will once again have to defend a policy that he knows will probably be changed again, like the family farm tax, and the 3,000% increase in the landfill tax, which the Government also ditched under pressure. The Prime Minister is too weak to make a decision. Now he wants to go up to his study and read more papers alone, ponder it and think about what he should do.

People increasingly feel that they are working harder and getting less, and that too many people are signed off on sickness benefits. The Government are making their life harder. On Labour’s watch, inflation has increased and unemployment is rising month after month. Labour Members’ constituents will see that, when the Government had the opportunity to stand up for families who rely on their cars, for the white van man, and for people in rural communities, they utterly failed to do so.

When the Chancellor was asked whether she would reverse this fuel tax hike, she said something very revealing:

“I’m very loath to spend Government money on something that the market should be doing”.

Government money? There is no such thing. That is taxpayers’ money. This Government think that everyone’s money belongs to the state, and people should be thankful to keep some of it. That attitude explains Labour’s £66 billion of tax increases to fund higher welfare spending, it explains the Government’s failure to control spending and live within our means, and it explains why the tax burden is at a record high and will only increase.

The impact is evident in the latest British social attitudes survey. Support for higher spending and taxation is falling, while support for lower taxes and lower spending is growing. That is the approach that the Conservative party has set out. We would make £47 billion of savings in public spending, including £23 billion in welfare—the Minister can have those ideas for free. We would use half that sum to reduce the deficit, and the other half to get the economy growing by scrapping stamp duty, and scrapping business rates for 250,000 leisure, retail and hospitality businesses.

The Government are putting up tax and making prices rise at a time of growing uncertainty. That is the wrong choice. That is why I will vote to ease the burden on British motorists and against Labour’s fuel duty hike.