Oral Answers to Questions

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2014 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

1. What assessment he has made of the effect of freezing fuel duty on the price of petrol.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

This Government will freeze fuel duty for the rest of this Parliament. As a result, petrol will cost a full 20p per litre less than if we had stuck with the previous Government’s hated fuel duty escalator. We can afford to do this because we have got a grip on the public finances.

The House will also want to know that today we learned that GDP grew by 0.8% in the first quarter of this year. That is 3.1% over the year and today’s figures show that Britain is coming back. We cannot take that for granted. We have to go on working through our long-term economic plan, but for the first time in a decade all three main sectors of the economy—manufacturing, services and construction—have grown by at least 3% in the past year.

The impact of the great recession is still being felt, but the foundations—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Chancellor will resume his seat. The answer was not just too long—it was far too long.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

I welcome today’s growth figures, which reflect the hard work of the people of the United Kingdom and mean more jobs and more economic security. Based on the dynamic modelling my right hon. Friend has done, what contribution have his decisions to cut and freeze fuel duty made to that economic growth?