Kwasi Kwarteng happy to ‘engage’ with call to cut fuel duty as drivers set to pay £5 extra for a tank of petrol due to falling value of sterling
- The new Chancellor said he was happy to ‘engage’ with calls to cut fuel duty
- It comes as it emerged drivers are paying an extra £5 for a tank of petrol
- Yesterday in a bleak day for markets the pound hit its lowest level in 37 years
Kwasi Kwarteng said he was happy to ‘engage’ with a call to cut fuel duty, as it emerged drivers are paying an extra £5 for a tank of petrol because of the fall in the value of the pound.
Analysis by the AA found the price of petrol at UK forecourts would be ‘at least’ 9p a litre cheaper if the pound had maintained its mid-February value of $1.35, instead of this week’s level of $1.14. Yesterday, it fell to $1.09.
The difference in pump prices is adding around £4.95 to the cost of filling up a typical 55-litre family car.
Kwasi Kwarteng (pictured) said he was happy to ‘engage’ with a call to cut fuel duty, as it emerged drivers are paying an extra £5 for a tank of petrol because of the fall in the value of the pound
After the Chancellor unveiled his mini-Budget in the Commons, Conservative MP Robert Halfon asked him if at the next Budget he could ‘please do everything he can to cut fuel duty’.
Mr Kwarteng replied: ‘I’d be very happy to engage my right honourable friend on that.’
Pump price savings from the cost of oil dropping back to where it was before Russia invaded Ukraine are being ‘severely undermined’ by the weakness of sterling, the AA said.
Analysis by the AA found the price of petrol at UK forecourts would be ‘at least’ 9p a litre cheaper if the pound had maintained its mid-February value of $1.35, instead of this week’s level of $1.14. Yesterday, it fell to $1.09
A spokesman said: ‘The influence of the exchange rate is often overlooked when drivers compare oil price movements with those at the pump.
‘Oil and fuel on commodity markets are traded in dollars, which makes the weaker pound very bad news for motorists.’
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