TV presenter leads fuel campaigners in Treasury lobby

Led by TV presenter Quentin Willson, a delegation from the FairFuelUK campaign lobbied the Treasury and handed in a letter to Chancellor George Osborne.

The letter urged him to abandon a planned April fuel duty increase of 1p a litre and to announce measures to bring down and stabilise the cost of fuel.

While at the Treasury, the delegation unfurled a banner showing a picture of a fuel tanker set out as a graphic which indicated just how much of the price of petrol and diesel is made up of Government fuel duty.

Mr Osborne has said he is considering the planned April rise.

The delegation also handed in letters to all MPs in Parliament.

The FairFuelUK campaign is backed by the Road Haulage Association (RHA), the Freight Transport Association (FTA), the Fuel Card Company and the RAC as well as other businesses, trade bodies and members of the motoring public.

After yesterday’s protest, campaign organiser Peter Carroll said: “The whole nation has to get behind this campaign to help boost the economy, which is being hurt by high fuel prices. Some MPs are supporting us and are saying that the fuel problem has now become a crisis. Scrapping the planned April fuel duty rise is a start, but we need a long-term solution.”

Geoff Dunning of the RHA said: “The recovery of the economy and its long-term future rely massively on stable fuel prices.”

Theo de Pencier of the FTA said: “It is within the Government’s gift to loosen the noose from around the industry’s neck but this will only happen if we all come together and make our voices heard.”

Friends of the Earth’s transport campaigner, Richard Dyer, said: “Motorists are paying the price for the failure of successive governments to wean our transport system off its addiction to oil.”