Suffolk: MP Speaks To Heart On Fuel Campaign

7 March 2012, 08:11 | Updated: 7 March 2012, 12:15

Campaigners will be trying to put pressure on Chancellor George Osborne to lower motoring taxes through a mass lobby of Parliament today.

Organised by the FairFuelUK group, the protest will include the delivery of a report to 10 Downing Street.

The handover will be followed by a mass lobby of MPs after average petrol prices reached a record high of 137.79p a litre earlier this week, with diesel now at an all-time high of £144.92.

The report is from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

It says that even a modest cut in fuel duty of 2.5p per litre would create 180,000 new jobs.

The main findings of the CEBR report were conveyed to treasury minister and MP for for Norwich North Chloe Smith last week when she met FairFuelUK spokesman Quentin Willson and the organisation's founder Peter Carroll.

The meeting took place after separate findings showed that UK drivers were paying the highest fuel taxes in Europe.

Mr Willson said: "We have shared the findings of this report with MPs and ministers. However, with only weeks to go to the Budget, we are concerned that the Government is not listening and not taking on board the significance of these findings.

For months, the Government has been wheeling out the same old argument that it can't afford to cut duty. Here is concrete evidence that it can make such a cut. Families and businesses are being crushed by these cruel levels of tax - 82p on every litre we buy. It's damaging the economy and holding back growth.

The people are clamouring for the Government to look at fuel duty. This research shows that a cut in fuel duty won't cost the Treasury a penny. It can cut duty and do any of the other options if it so wishes.

So it is wrong of the Government to say it's a choice between a fuel duty cut and other measures. It can, and should, cut fuel duty now."

Waveney MP Peter Aldous speaks to Heart about the fuel campaign