Balls vows to force vote on delaying 3p fuel rise
Friday 09 November 2012
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EmailLabour said today its MPs would force a Commons vote next week over a 3p rise in fuel duty that FairFuel UK says would could cost 35,000 jobs.
Chancellor George Osborne had originally planned the 3p rise for this August but delayed it until January at a cost of £550 million.
But shadow chancellor Ed Balls says the price rise should be put off until at least next April to protect families and small businesses.
"When the cost of living is rising, our recovery is fragile and this out-of-touch government is giving 8,000 millionaires a tax cut, it cannot be right to hit middle and low-income families and small businesses with another tax increase," Mr Balls wrote in a Politics Home blog.
Mr Balls said the government should target tax avoidance, which is costing Britain billions, to make up the shortfall.
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