Over 130k fuming drivers BEG Rachel Reeves not to hike fuel duty in petition
MORE than 130,000 angry drivers are begging Rachel Reeves to spare them a fuel duty hike in the Budget.
Campaigners marched on Downing Street earlier today to deliver a petition demanding she drop plans to increase fuel costs.
Senior Tory MPs, led by Saqib Bhatti, handed over the 131,000 signatures a week before the Budget.
Mr Bhatti told The Sun: “The Conservatives proved we were on the side of families and businesses by keeping costs at the pump down for fourteen consecutive years.
“Next week, it will be Labour’s big first test to show they will be on their side too.”
Our relentless “Keep It Down” campaign alongside FairFuelUK has forced ministers to keep fuel duty frozen for more than a decade.
But fears are mounting the Chancellor could increase it by as much as 7p next week to help fill a £40bn black hole in the country’s finances.
Parliament‘s first “bionic Lord” Craig Mackinlay also joined the group to deliver the petition and urge Ms Reeves to “keep it down”.
The former Tory MP, who last week became the first quadruple amputee to sit in the House of Lords, said: “A hike would hit people very much in their pockets… and it would hit the most vulnerable.
“I am a disabled person, I like to call myself temporarily incapacitated. But if you’re disabled, seriously disabled, you can’t go out and find extra work to pay this tax.
“You have to take it out of the minimal income that you currently have, so it hits the poorest and the most vulnerable the hardest.”
Howard Cox from FairFuelUK added: “Rachel Reeves should recognise that freezing fuel duty is still the best thing for the economy.
“Putting it up could cause an amazing problem for small businesses, sole traders…
“I’m afraid fuel duty does hit the working person.”
Reform UK‘s five MPs, including party leader Nigel Farage, are also backing our campaign and wrote to the Chancellor to demand a fuel duty cut.
Last week The Sun reported on how more than 70 Tory MPs had written to Ms Reeves urging her to freeze rates and keep the 5p cut.