Tag Archives: fuel duty

Cheaper fuel isn’t a liberal transport policy

Last week, the party announced an emergency transport package: 10p off fuel duty, £1 bus fares, a 10% rail cut, lower VAT on public EV charging. And the reaction from members has been… pretty muted. I think that tells us something. There’s a shared instinct here that the package doesn’t quite land, and it’s worth working out why.

It’s not that responding to a crisis is wrong. People are paying more to get around because of a war they didn’t start, and a responsible opposition should have something to say about that. The question is whether what we’re saying is distinctively liberal, or whether we’ve produced the package that any of the three parties could have announced on any given Tuesday.

Start with the centrepiece: a 10p cut in fuel duty. This is, bluntly, a regressive measure wearing compassionate clothing. Higher-income households drive more, drive larger vehicles, and capture more of the benefit. The “parent in rural Devon” does real rhetorical work in the press release, but the primary beneficiaries of a universal fuel subsidy are people who drive a lot, and that correlates reliably with income.

More fundamentally, we are in the middle of an energy price shock caused by a war over fossil fuels. The liberal response to that should not be “let’s make fossil fuels cheaper.” You cannot credibly argue for the energy transition while subsidising the thing you’re transitioning away from the moment prices rise. Policy should help people through that shift, not reverse the price signal whenever it bites.

There’s also a basic supply-and-demand problem here. If the Iran war continues or escalates, fuel supplies could be seriously constrained. In that scenario, higher prices do useful if painful work: they reduce consumption, which is exactly what you need when there might not be enough to go around. Cutting duty does the opposite. It stimulates demand at the moment you most need to conserve. That’s not just bad climate policy. It’s bad crisis management.

The bus and rail elements are better. A £1 bus fare is genuinely progressive and I’d love to see it become permanent. A 10% rail cut is at least the right direction. But both are temporary, set for three months, and three months of cheaper tickets doesn’t restore a single cut route or reverse the structural decay that created the problem.

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2 April 2026 – today’s press releases

  • SNP set to miss key child poverty target
  • Welsh Lib Dems urge Reeves to scrap fuel duty hike as global instability drives rising petrol prices
  • Cole-Hamilton sets out mental health plan with visit to therapy llamas
  • Greene: Reform set to lose 26 constituency candidates by polling day, figures show
  • Murray: Lib Dem 10p fuel duty cut will get Scotland moving again
  • Welsh Lib Dems slam Reform’s “fantasy” coal plans as a threat to jobs, bills and climate
  • Reform candidate’s Ukraine comments spark outrage as Lib Dems warn of “dangerous” pro-Kremlin rhetoric

SNP set to miss key child poverty target

Responding to IFS analysis which indicates that Scotland is on course to miss its target to reduce relative child poverty to below 10% by 2030-31 “by a considerable margin”, Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Jamie Greene MSP said:

Despite the grand rhetoric from the SNP, they have left thousands of children in poverty.

For the past nineteen years, the SNP have failed to use the powers they have had at their disposal to move the dial.

Just like Nicola Sturgeon broke her promise to close the attainment gap, John Swinney has broken his promise to reduce child poverty. They simply cannot be trusted.

Scottish Liberal Democrats are focused on tackling the root causes of child poverty, and everyone in Scotland has the chance to vote for these plans by backing us on your peach, regional ballot paper in May.

Welsh Lib Dems urge Reeves to scrap fuel duty hike as global instability drives rising petrol prices

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on Labour to cancel their planned fuel duty increase, warning that continued instability in the Middle East is already driving up global oil prices and risks placing further pressure on households and businesses across Wales.

The intervention comes as forecourts begin to reflect rising wholesale costs, with industry experts warning that sustained geopolitical tensions could keep prices elevated in the weeks ahead. Edmund King, President of the AA, has previously warned that such instability would “inevitably lead to price hikes,” with sharp increases often feeding through to drivers within days.

Labour’s planned changes would see fuel duty rise for the first time in 15 years, beginning with a 1p increase in September, followed by further rises through to 2027. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have warned that pressing ahead with the increase at a time of heightened global uncertainty would compound cost-of-living pressures, particularly in areas where people have little choice but to drive.

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Lib Dems call for fuel duty to be cut in more rural areas

Liberal Democrats have urged the Government to reduce fuel duty in rural areas, after analysis found that households in more remote areas paid £114 in transport costs each week in the year to March 2020, almost £40 more than those in urban areas.

The Lib Dems want an expansion of the rural fuel duty relief scheme, which is currently offered in a handful of remote areas of the UK, including Scotland islands and other areas, Scilly, and Hawes.

The proposal is to extend the relief to places where “public transport options are limited and drivers are being disproportionately hit by rising fuel prices”. This would include Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria, Shropshire and rural parts of Wales. The Lib Dems also want the relief to be doubled to 10p a litre.

Reported by the Telegraph and the i, rural affairs spokesman Tim Farron said:

The Government must act now to help rural families on the brink, by expanding the fuel duty relief scheme.

Ministers need to also crack down on the petrol profiteers who are cashing in on people’s misery at the pump.

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Danny Alexander announces plans to extend rural fuel derogation

petrol pumpIn 2010, Danny Alexander made sure that there was a commitment to fair rural fuel duty in the Coalition Agreement. Last year he was able to deliver on that, securing a 5p reduction in duty for remote island areas.

Now he wants to see if that can be extended. As a first step towards that, petrol retailers are being asked to supply details of the prices they charge .The Government will then use that information as the basis s of a further application to reduce the duty in those areas.

If …

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Michael Moore MP’s Westminster notes

Every week, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland writes a column for newspapers in his Borders constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

Armed forces day

Armed Forces Day last Saturday was a chance for the country to express its gratitude for the courage and bravery of serving and former service personnel, as well as the immense contribution made by their families. In my constituency we have a strong connection with our armed forces so I was pleased to be able to take part in various celebrations to mark the day.

As UK citizens, we have a duty of care towards the men and

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LDVideo: Chloe Smith’s car-crash fuel duty Newsnight interview

Yesterday saw George Osborne execute his latest U-turn, postponing from August until January next year the 3p-a-litre rise in fuel duty. Here is that U-turn, by the way:

Last night, Conservative Treasury minister did a tour of the media studios to defend the decision. Unfortunately for her, that included facing Jeremy Paxman live on BBC2’s Newsnight. You can watch the fairly excruciating result below (from approx. 6m:15s in):

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