Shadow Energy Minister Andrew Bowie has accused Rachel Reeves of being the real profiteer from rising fuel costs, claiming the Treasury is benefiting from a £20million-a-day tax windfall while drivers across Britain continue to struggle at the pumps.
Speaking on GB News, the Conservative MP said motorists heading to work would be asking why extra revenues generated by higher petrol and diesel prices are not being used to ease the pressure on households.
Bowie argued the money could be used to maintain the fuel duty freeze, which is set to expire in September, and warned that families are being left to shoulder ever-rising costs while ministers point the finger elsewhere.
He said: “People driving into work this morning will be looking at the cost of petrol and diesel and wondering why this windfall being raked in by the Treasury is not being spent to offset the huge costs they are being expected to pay just to go about their daily lives.
“It could, for example, be used to maintain the fuel duty freeze, which is set to expire in September. That would give some comfort to drivers and motorists around the country who are seeing these costs go higher and higher, and wondering how on earth they are supposed to pay for an increase in duty on that fuel come September.
“For all the accusations of price gouging and profiteering by business, it turns out the only profiteering going on is by Rachel Reeves.”
Bowie also criticised the Government for failing to follow other countries in cutting fuel duty, saying ministers had the means to offset some of the pressure now being felt by motorists.
He said: “There has been all this discussion about the fact that various other countries around the globe are already cutting fuel duty, not just freezing it, as a way of ensuring the public do not have to pay much more at the pumps, and yet there has been no talk of us going in that direction.
“There is every reason why we could, because you could absolutely offset what the Treasury is making from this windfall against what the public is paying extra at the pump.”
Turning to wider energy policy, Bowie said the Government was tying its own hands behind its back by restricting domestic oil and gas production, and claimed that approach was driving up costs for both households and industry.
He said: “Because we are preventing ourselves from getting the gas and oil we need from our own waters, we could instead be seeing cuts to energy bills, cuts to fuel duty, and a whole host of other ways that money could be put to good use.
“But because of Ed Miliband and his eco-zealotry, because of Rachel Reeves and, frankly, incompetence, we are seeing British people paying more to keep their lights on, paying more to keep their cars running, and British industry having to close down because energy prices in this country are so high.”
Bowie went on to say it was wrong for the Government to accuse businesses of profiteering while, in his view, failing to use rising tax receipts to support consumers.
He said: “It is not actually that helpful to call in petrol company bosses and supermarket bosses and point the finger at them, saying, ‘You are responsible for this’ and ‘You are profiteering from this’, when the Government is doing pretty much the same thing.
“We just need to ensure that tax is being spent where it is needed, and that this extra windfall the Treasury is getting is being used to offset the spike in the cost of living that everybody around the UK is feeling right now, not least motorists.
“It is quite disingenuous of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to be pointing fingers and calling others profiteers and price gougers, when actually it seems that it is the Government doing just that.”