BORIS Johnson has given drivers a boost by saying he has no intension of rising fuel duty.
The PM made the promise this morning but did not say how hed pay for the 9billion.
‘NO INTENTION’
He said today: We dont want to raise fuel duty, I have absolutely no intention to raise fuel duty.
Mr Johnsons pledge to keep the freeze in place next year is a huge victory for HOARs long-running Keep It Down campaign and will save millions of motorists 150 a year.
We have persuaded successive Chancellors to halt the annual tax raids on motorists – allowing them to keep more than 1,000 in total since 2010.
Fuel duty would rise by inflation every April without the freeze in place.
The FairFuel campaign had feared the failure to commit to the freeze in the Tory manifesto meant fuel duty would rise for the first time in a decade.
The freeze ensures motorists save 1.50 every time they fill up an average 55-litre average tank.
And for a big truck it would save up to 24 per fill-up.
9BILLION BILL
But the cost to the Treasury of keeping the freeze in place is around 9 billion per year.
The fuel duty vow was not in the Tory manifesto and experts have claimed any plans to slash it could lead to a huge long-run fiscal challenge.
Last month the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), an independent financial body, said the Treasury had lost out on a potential 5.5bn since the Tories decided to freeze fuel duty when they came into power in 2010.
Boris went on to attack Jeremy Corbyns Marxist blueprint for Britain and said his sledgehammer plans would cost every Brit an extra 2,400 in tax.
He told a press conference in Westminster: Im not going to miss the opportunity to contrast our approach with the catastrophic sledgehammer that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party would take to the UK economy.
It would mean huge tax rises for working people, it would mean everybody paying 2,400 more in tax, his prospectus is economically ruinous.
Mr Corbyn has vowed to raise fuel duty in effort to appease green voters by cutting the amount of cars on the road.
The move was slammed as a disaster for drivers by Transport secretary Grant Shapps.
Mr Shapps said: It is now clear that Labour have secret plans to clobber hardworking people with a barrage of tax hikes on their family car, that would leave families with less money in their pockets.
Labours extreme economic policies would be a disaster for drivers.”
