Transport secretary denies petrol tax cuts as Osborne launches investigation into falling prices
What is happening to petrol prices? The Conservatives can't seem to decide.
What is happening to petrol prices? The Conservatives can’t seem to decide
Speaking to Andrew Neill on the BBC’s Sunday Politics show, the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin repeatedly denied that the government had made any cuts to petrol tax.
Neill said that he had become sceptical about the Conservatives’ commitment to green issues after they presided over cuts to fuel tax and a 25 per cent increase in rail fares. McLoughlin disagreed twice.
This comes as George Osborne launches an investigation into whether companies are passing the benefits of falling oil and gas companies on to customers.
The chancellor said that families should have cheaper household bills because of the drop in prices. The Treasury’s chief secretary Danny Alexander wrote in November wrote to all main fuel suppliers and distributors in November to demand that customers feel the benefits of the change ‘as quickly as possible’.
Osborne’s talk about passing on savings, while his transport secretary denies that savings are happening at all, looks like pre-election posturing.
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