Fuel duty hike warning: 152,000 drivers demand action ahead of budget
With rumours of a 5p hike in fuel duty and pay-per-mile charges for EVs, motorcyclists should watch the Winter Budget more closely than ever.
At 2pm on Tuesday 25th November, Broxbourne MP Lewis Cocking will lead a cross-party group of MPs to Number 10 and 11 Downing Street, clutching 152,000 signatures from FairFuelUK’s latest Fuel Duty petition.
The message to the Chancellor is simple: cut fuel duty, or at the very least, don’t increase it in the upcoming Winter Budget.
For Britain’s motorcyclists, this isn’t just politics, it’s petrol-in-the-tank reality. Whispers in Whitehall suggest a 5p-per-litre hike could be on the cards, reversing Rishi Sunak’s 2022 “Ukraine support” cut. There’s also talk of EV pay-per-mile charges and even a return of the fuel price escalator. If that all lands at once, anyone with an engine could be in for a more expensive winter than they expected.
Despite being invited by tens of thousands of their own constituents, only one Labour MP showed up to FairFuelUK’s pre-budget debate and refused to say whether they favoured a cut or a hike. But the public mood is clear: out of 60,000 responses to the group’s latest poll, three in four Labour voters want fuel duty either cut or frozen, and one in ten want it scrapped entirely. Even among Labour’s own base, the appetite for higher fuel taxes is somewhere between low and non-existent.
Founder of FairFuelUK, Howard Cox, is clear in what he and his organisation want: “Keeping Fuel Duty frozen would be one of the best fiscal stimuli this government could deploy. Hiking it could be the final political blow in a succession of self-inflicted disasters.”
For anyone who rides, especially commuters and rural motorcyclists, fuel duty isn’t an abstract fiscal idea. It’s the difference between getting to work and parking the bike for good. For those of us using two wheels as a lifeline, to beat public transport, congestion, ULEZ zones, and parking charges, cheaper fuel is still one of the last remaining freedoms on the road.
FairFuelUK says current pump prices are already 5p to 9p higher than they should be, with supermarket margins doubling since 2017. Their proposed PumpWatch scheme, already backed by the previous government, would monitor forecourt prices and stop profiteering across the fuel supply chain.
Tomorrow’s petition delivery may look like a photo op, but for Britain’s motorists, it could decide whether non-essential rides this winter require a bike or a bus ticket.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
