Rachel Reeves is poised to inflict more misery on motorists (Image: Getty)
You wouldn’t have thought there could be much more to rinse from those who have suffered under the boot of Labour’s ruinous run in charge of Britain. But if you believe that, think again.
Few things bring a smile to the face of robotic Rachel Reeves but the Chancellor must be rubbing her hands with glee over what is happening in the Middle East.
Why? Well, it’s another golden opportunity to squeeze the squeezed.
Ms Reeves and Labour’s net zero zealot Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the fuel industry they will be closely watching pump prices during the mounting oil crisis and said any attempt to profit would not be tolerated.
Pull the other one. The blockade in the Hormuz Strait, which has choked global supplies, is music to their ears.
The Treasury is already pocketing an extra £91million a month in VAT on increased petrol and diesel sales – an eye-watering figure equal to more than £1billion a year.
Labour is poised to seize another opportunity to squeeze the squeezed (Image: Getty)
In the UK drivers already face a double whammy at the pumps with fuel duty, a form of excise tax, levied at a flat rate of 52.95 pence per litre for both petrol and diesel. This rate has been frozen since 2011-12.
In addition, VAT is charged on both the price and the duty at a rate of 20%.
For too long this regressive taxation has clobbered those Labour pretends to champion the most – the working class.
Petrol is the currency for millions of small businesses, tradesmen, and community carers who rely on their cars and vans.
The current shameless profiteering by fuel firms and, as a consequence, the Treasury, is simply the profit of war.
The average price of a litre of unleaded has risen by 6%, or nearly 8p, to 140.6p since the start of the Middle East conflict on February 28 and now stands at its highest level in 18 months.
Diesel has rocketed by 12% – or almost 17p – to 159.2p a litre, a price not seen since November 2023.
Filling up a family car now costs £4 or £9 more (depending on whether yours is petrol or diesel) than it did two weeks ago.
And it is sure to get worse.
Global insecurity has shown Labour’s energy folly for what it is – an expensive vanity project.
We have no contingency to be self-sufficient in oil and gas production and, as a result, we are reliant on imports.
This is likely to be seized upon by Ms Reeves as a chance to axe the fuel duty freeze – something that has been a welcome relief to those hammered into submission by successive tax rises which have fleeced the strivers and rewarded the shirkers.
The Chancellor and her army of Treasury pen pushers have been itching to punish Britain’s 37 million drivers to appease net zero zealots. Now they have the perfect excuse.
In the Autumn Budget the hike could be as much as 10p – a reversal of former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s 5p Covid cut plus an additional 5p per litre.
But such a move would be disastrous at a time when the economy is on life support.
Plenty were reeled in by Labour’s preposterous pre-general election pronouncement that it was a champion of the working classes.
But it was fool’s gold.
The UK tax burden now stands at its highest sustained level since the late 1940s and drivers, as the rest of the country, are fast finding out they are on the road to nowhere under this government.