HOW MUCH CAN DRIVERS TAKE?

Prices at the pump rise for 10th week in a row They’ve hit a four-year high And Chancellor hints at £160-a-year fuel tax raid on all of us

A ROW broke out over fuel duty yesterday after petrol prices hit a four-year high.

Chancellor Philip Hammond suggested on Tuesday that an eight-year freeze in the levy was coming to an end.

But motoring groups warned such a move would harm businesses, hit families and damage Conservative Party fortunes.

They said drivers were already paying £40billion in taxes for ‘Third World’ roads. And they pointed out that pump prices have risen for ten weeks in a row.

It is thought Mr Hammond, who needs £20billion for an NHS spending boost, could unveil a duty rise in his autumn budget.

The freeze has been saving the typical motorist around £160 a year.

With the oil price surging – it hit a 2018 high of $80 a barrel yesterday – the cost of unleaded has risen to £1.30 a litre and £1.34 for diesel.

Filling up the average tank now costs more than £70 – the most since July 2014 and up to £18 more than just two years ago.

Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, claimed a duty hike would be seen as ‘opportunism from an out-of-touch Chancellor’. He added: ‘Mr Hammond is playing Russian roulette with his party’s electoral fortunes by threatening a duty hike on hard pressed drivers.’

Steve Gooding of the RAC Foundation said: ‘It wasn’t just a long, hot summer for drivers, it was also an expensive one with pump prices rising relentlessly to the four-year high we see

today. The last thing tens of millions of drivers need is a jump in fuel duty. A hike won’t just hit motorists.

‘Fuel is a huge expense for many businesses whether they run cars, vans or lorries, and any additional cost will ultimately be passed on to consumers.

‘Whether you drive or not you will pay the price as goods and services become increasingly dear.’

Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011 at 57.95p per litre for both petrol and diesel. In the last budget, Mr Hammond said the decision to freeze it would save drivers £160 a year on average.

Fuel duty raised almost £28billion during the 2017/18 tax year, according to official estimates.

Mr Hammond said the freeze had cost the Exchequer around £46billion.

But campaigners have pointed out that motorists in Britain were still among the most heavily taxed in the world.

At £1.30 a litre for unleaded, 57.95p goes on fuel duty and around 22p on VAT – a total of 80p.

Drivers must also pay road tax – Vehicle Excise Duty – as well as insurance premium tax. Motoring journalist and broadcaster Quentin Willson said: ‘UK drivers already pay £40billion a year in motoring taxes for shocking Third World roads. Raising fuel duty with Brexit, oil at close to $80 and slow consumer spending is arrogant and reckless – and the way to lose the next election. Why doesn’t Westminster understand how important the road economy is to all our lives?’

A Treasury study in 2014 concluded that freezing fuel duty helped the economy to the extent of almost offsetting the tax lost to the Exchequer.

Tory MP Robert Halfon said: ‘Any tax hikes on drivers will impact badly on business, the economy and push up prices we all pay in the shops.

‘Pump prices are already rising rapidly now, being 15p up on last year.

‘A fuel duty hit will slow growth and cripple many small businesses. We must keep the freeze in this levy for the whole of this Parliament.’

The former minister warned plenty of Tory MPs would block a duty hike if it was tabled in the budget.

It is also thought that the DUP, which keeps the Conservatives in power, would not support a rise.

Before the last budget, six of the party’s ten MPs wrote to the Chancellor urging him to keep the fuel duty freeze. Since April, the cost of filling up a typical family car that runs on unleaded or diesel has risen by around £6. The rising cost of fuel has become one of the main household expenses that has been driving up the cost of living. Last night the price of oil was approaching a fouryear high.