Starmer at PMQs: 5p Fuel Duty Freeze Extended; Haulier Tax Holiday
At Prime Minister’s Questions today Sir Keir Starmer announced an extension of the temporary 5p fuel duty cut for the rest of 2026 and a twelve-month vehicle excise duty holiday for the haulage industry. The package is expected to cost approximately £400 million; Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out the details on Thursday. “This is not our war, but while the parties opposite wanted to jump into it, Labour will always protect working people,” Starmer told the Commons. The Treasury said the freeze would have saved the average driver £120 over two years by the end of 2026; the one-year vehicle excise pause would save £600 for a typical heavy lorry.
The 5p cut, first introduced by Rishi Sunak in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, had been due to expire in September following Reeves’s autumn budget. The extension is funded as part of a wider Reeves cost-of-living package being unveiled Thursday. Kemi Badenoch claimed it was a U-turn caused by Conservative pressure; Starmer rejected the framing: “I know the leader of the opposition likes to claim responsibility for things that have got literally nothing to do with her. In her mind, she won Eurovision on Saturday and scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final.” Sky News political editor Beth Rigby described the session as an “open goal” for the opposition, with the challenges to Starmer’s leadership giving the Conservatives additional ammunition.