It would be madness to raise fuel tax by 5p a litre – it’s a fast road to ruin
Utterly fuellish
IT would be madness to raise fuel tax by 5p a litre to keep funding an extra £20 a week to Universal Credit claimants.
The last thing our shattered economy needs is a huge hike at the pumps, hurting every driver and every shop customer, once it feeds down into prices.
For a decade The Sun has campaigned to freeze fuel duty and successive Chancellors have wisely listened.
We do sympathise with Rishi Sunak. No one can credibly accuse him of penny-pinching in supporting business and families since the pandemic struck.
And while we feel for UC claimants, many working hard on low pay, it would cost £6billion a year to make their rise permanent.
That would have to be paid for. Our Covid debt is now so mindboggling that many people, not just the Left, have begun foolishly to believe there IS a magic money tree.
But we will simply have to rein in extra costs, while using lower taxes to turbo-charge growth and create jobs.
Raising them to spend more is the fast road to ruin.
Find us the exit
WHEN will schools go back or lockdown be lifted? Neither can have firm answers yet.
Daily deaths are still at terrible highs. Hospitals are packed. Cases are falling slowly, but from a mountainous peak.
Most read in News
No one can know how much better placed we will be in a month or more.
But what must those casualty figures fall to before the Government decides schools — primaries especially — and some of the economy are safe to reopen?
No10 won’t name firm dates. But it can set out an exit plan.