Fuel Prices and the Cost of Living

Debate between Claire Perry and Julie Hilling

Wednesday 16th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)]

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil). I represent a large, rural constituency in Wiltshire, and when I filled up my car on Monday morning, I found that we, too, are paying £1.40 for diesel and £1.35 for unleaded fuel. The point was very well made by the hon. Member for Bristol West (Stephen Williams) that once one gets out of London and the major metropolitan areas there is a real problem with competition. That problem is shared by many constituencies across the UK.

I am afraid that the Labour motion is breathtakingly cynical. Not one Labour Member bothered to show up at the recent debate on this issue in Westminster Hall, and the Labour Government consistently penalised motorists across the country for 13 years, with unused bus lanes, underinvestment in rural transport and 12 rises in fuel duty over 13 years, of which four were in the last 16 months of their term of office. They also planned, as part of their scorched earth economic policy before the election, six further rises to come into effect over four years, so their cynicism in presenting this motion is breathtaking.

[Julie Hilling]

The hon. Lady is very keen to talk about what the previous Labour Government did, but does she want to think a little about what is happening now? The Road Haulage Association says that in the last week alone £850 was added to the cost per year of running an average-sized lorry—that was under her Government’s watch.

[Claire Perry]

I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s intervention and I will come to my “demand” for something to be done about this problem. I think we both have in our constituencies small haulage businesses that are really suffering from the increases in fuel prices.

I find the motion muddled and inaccurate. This is yet another unfunded spending commitment from the shadow Chancellor and the Opposition. We cannot use a one-off levy of £800 million to fund a permanent reduction in VAT costing several times that amount. The maths just does not add up. I had always thought that the shadow Chancellor, who is not in his place, was a fairly financially literate fellow.