Raising fuel tax would hurt NHS’ virus fight, MPs warn
CONSERVATIVE MPs have warned the Chancellor that hiking fuel duty in the Budget could hurt the NHS while it is under strain dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
Robert Halfon, the driving force behind a petition supported by 36 Tory backbenchers, said raising taxes at the pumps would have an impact on the health service – just as Rishi Sunak looks set to hand over more money to help the NHS deal with the virus crisis.
Mr Halfon warned that it would be akin to “giving with one hand and taking away with the other” if the Chancellor gave the NHS extra cash while raising fuel duty.
“Our message to the Chancellor is that the economy is facing a major challenge in coronavirus,” the Harlow MP told the PA news agency. “We should be helping ordinary folk and businesses, not hammering them with fuel duty charges. Don’t forget, the NHS is going to need a lot of extra money to deal with this kind of virus.
“What’s the point though if you then put up fuel duty? Then the NHS will have to pay more as well because of the cost of transportation, ambulances and all that sort of thing.
“They would be giving with one hand and taking away with the other.”
Senior Tories such as former party leader Iain Duncan Smith, ex-Brexit secretary David Davis and ex-transport secretary Chris Grayling were among the signatories to the letter, which Mr Halfon handed to Treasury officials yesterday.
Mr Halfon and his colleagues want a fuel duty freeze to be announced in the Commons tomorrow
And campaigners have flagged to Downing Street that they have the numbers to bring about Boris Johnson’s first Commons defeat since securing his 80-seat landslide victory at the December election if Mr Sunak does opt to hike fuel duty.