Conservative leadership candidate backed by controversial FairFuelUK — pledges 50% fuel VAT cut

Conservative Party leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt has announced the support of pro-motoring lobby group FairFuelUK, which calls for lower fuel duty for motorists, along with the news that she would cut fuel VAT by 50 per cent "immediately".

Mordaunt, who this weeked was backed as the early front runner in the race to succeed Boris Johnson in a poll of young Conservative members and is the current second favourite with the bookmakers, spread the news of FairFuelUK's backing on social media, saying she is "glad" for it.

Glad to have the backing of @FairFuelUK.

I will introduce an immediate 50% cut in VAT on fuel, reducing filling up the average family car by £10 per fill. #PM4PM pic.twitter.com/fnLoFZEGsv

— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) July 10, 2022

"Penny has been a staunch and loyal backer of UK's 37 million drivers and as an MP, is a founding supporter of FairFuelUK," Howard Cox, founder of FairFuelUK, said.

"I have known her for 12 years and truly believe she will deliver on the need for lower and fairer fuel taxation. She will introduce fairer incentives to drive cleaner, instead of inflicting ill-informed cliff edge, idealistic and costly punitive bans.

"I am also certain she will bring a large dose of common-sense fiscal tactics to reduce the pain of the cost-of-living crisis. Our leadership survey shows she is a popular choice to lead her party to what millions of new Tory converts wanted back in 2019.

"I am looking forward at long last, to working with a kindred spirit in creating an effective road user strategy that benefits the economy and UK's much-villified drivers."

FairFuelUK, which is funded by the Road Haulage Association and Logistics UK, boasts that it has saved drivers £165 billion in planned fuel duty rises.

In August last year the lobby group paid for and produced a report on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and UK Hauliers titled What does the 2030 fossil fuelled new vehicle sales ban really mean to the economy, environment, and UK's 37m drivers?

In the report were repeated references to it aiming to give a voice to "the UK's 37 million drivers" – described as "hard-pressed" and "perennially demonised" and all for the benefit, apparently, of cyclists, supported by the policies of a "virtue-signalling government" and a "political bias […] towards cyclists, particularly in urban areas."

Just a week after the report's publication, Mr Cox accused Jeremy Vine of "politicising" cycling and "fuelling a war between drivers and cyclists".

One month later, Mr Cox blamed a "militant cyclist" for marking his house as a petrol station on Google Maps during the shortages of last September. While in February the lobby group's founder wrote that the "lunatic Highway Code" encourages road rage and gives cyclists carte blanche.

Mordaunt's campaign got off to a high-profile start after Paralympic athlete Jonnie Peacock was one of several public figures who asked to be removed from a promotional video.

The video also used footage of South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, convicted in 2014 of the culpable homicide of his partner Reeva Steenkamp after she was shot dead at the couple's home in Pretoria.

[Main image: Michael Hughes / DFID / CC Attribution 2.0 Generic]