Post-Brexit Boost For U.K. Motorists As Fuel Duty To Be Cut (Climate change, what climate change?)

The U.K. government plans to reduce fuel duty in an attempt to boost the post-Brexit economy. Fuel duties have remained frozen since 2010. The plan to reduce the cost of motoring even further would likely lead to more miles driven, making a mockery of the U.K. government’s commitment to combatting climate change.

Analysts see the populist move as another signal that the Boris Johnson administration will soon announce an early election.

A 10 Downing Street source briefed: “After eight years, it is time to finally put some money back into the pockets of motorists.”

The source added: “The savings would help hard-working hauliers, commuters and parents on the school run.”

(The source did not add that it would also help lazy hauliers and adversely impact on clean air thereby harming the parents and children doing the school run on foot or by bicycle.)

Journalists have been told that Chancellor Sajid Javid’s Autumn Budget will slash the current 57.9p duty per litre for petrol and diesel. The duty accounts for more than 60% of the cost of fuel, and raises more than £28-billion a year for the Treasury.

If the duty had not been frozen for each of the last eight years it would have raised an estimated £10 billion annually, but U.K. governments pander to motorists, fearing a return to the fuel protests which almost crippled the country in 2000 and 2007.

If the U.K. crashes out of the EU on October 31 there will likely be panic buying of fuel because of blockages at oil refinineries, states the government’s Operation Yellowhammer no-deal Brexit report.

Ministers hope that a cut in fuel duty would stimulate the economy but it would do this by increasing transport emissions and make it harder for the U.K. to comply with legally-binding greenhouse gas emission targets agreed under the Paris Agreement of 2016.