Planned fuel duty rise to be scrapped, says Keir Starmer

Key points

• Keir Starmer has announced an extension to the temporary 5p cut in fuel duty, as widely expected, telling the Commons it was a necessary response to cost-of-living pressures.
• Before a wider package of measures due to be announced by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, on Thursday, Starmer used prime minister’s questions to announce the extended freeze and a vehicle tax break for the haulage industry.
• At the last budget, Reeves announced she would freeze fuel duty for nine months but that she would end a temporary 5p cut, first announced by Rishi Sunak in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, beginning in September.
• Asked by the Labour MP Kirsteen Sullivan about whether the government could do more to help with cost-of-living pressures, Starmer replied: “There is more that we can do, and I can announce today that we are giving our hauliers a 12-month vehicle tax holiday, helping to keep...