Reform UK calls for emergency cut to petrol and diesel VAT as Jenrick urges Reeves to support families
Reform UK has called for an emergency three-month cut to VAT on petrol and diesel as drivers continue to face soaring costs at the pumps.
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Speaking exclusively to LBC, Robert Jenrick said the Chancellor should “halve VAT on petrol and diesel” for three months to help households and businesses through what he described as the worst of the current pressure.
He said: “People want to see action now and Rachel Reeves is choosing to do nothing.”
Jenrick said the proposal would help “a driver going to work, a mum or dad taking their kids to school in a rural area, a white van man going to work and a family-owned haulage company that might be under massive pressure right now”.
He told LBC the temporary measure would “cover at least the worst of this crisis”, adding: “We don’t know how long this war is going to last and how difficult the circumstances will be afterwards, but in the months to come, we do know that it’s going to be very, very hard for motorists across the country.”
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The comments came as the RAC said fuel price rises have nearly stopped after weeks of steady increases. These have been tracked by LBC’s listeners with Nick Ferrari’s fuel tracker.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “While pump prices have technically risen for a record 43 straight days, the increases have almost ground to a halt.”
According to RAC figures supplied to LBC, average petrol prices now stand at 158.27p a litre, up 25.4p since 28 February, while diesel has climbed to 191.5p a litre, up 49.1p over the same period.
Williams added: “With dated Brent crude under $100 a barrel for the last three trading days, there’s now scope to see prices finally starting to go the other way.”
But he warned: “As always, it’s a highly volatile situation with much depending on what happens with the Strait of Hormuz.”
During the interview, Jenrick was pressed on whether there was any guarantee a VAT cut would actually be passed on to consumers rather than absorbed elsewhere.
He acknowledged the risk, but said: “There’s a danger of that, of course, but that’s a recipe for doing nothing at all.”
Jenrick also accused the government of benefitting from rising energy costs, telling LBC: “The Chancellor has made a big deal about petrol companies and others profiteering. But actually, the person who’s profiteering is the Chancellor at the moment.”
He said Reform’s wider cost-of-living package would include scrapping VAT on domestic energy bills, cancelling any future fuel duty rise and removing green levies from bills.
Jenrick said: “We would get rid of the heating tax, VAT on domestic fuel, and we would get rid of the green levies and taxes that have been loaded on by stealth to people’s energy bills.”
He added that at the forecourt, Reform would bring in “an emergency halving of VAT on petrol and diesel”, which he said would make fuel “13 or 16p cheaper” per litre.
Asked by LBC whether high fuel prices should prompt a faster move away from fossil fuels, Jenrick said his focus was on lowering costs for households and businesses.
He said: “I just want to bring down people’s bills. I want cheap and reliable energy.”
He also criticised ministers for failing to move ahead with more North Sea oil and gas production, saying it was “an absolute crime that these things are not being taken forward by this government.”
Jenrick insisted Reform’s proposals were aimed at helping working people, not only those on the lowest incomes.
He said: “Everyone is suffering at the moment,” adding: “Everyone needs the government to be on their side, trying to lighten the load just a little bit.”
Sir Keir Starmer has doubled down on his promise to “make Britain energy independent”, warning that billpayers are “fed up with international events beyond their control pushing up their energy bills”.
The Prime Minister told the Commons that “oil and gas will be part of our energy mix for decades to come”.
He added: “But we do not set the global price for oil and gas, and households across the country are fed up with international events beyond their control pushing up their energy bills, and I stand with them on that.
“So we will go further and faster on our mission to make Britain energy independent, because that is the only way we get off the fossil fuel rollercoaster and take control of our energy bills.”