THE Liberal Democrats have outlined plans to launch a consultation about reducing fuel duty by 5p in 20 rural areas.

Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain told GB News: “We’re here talking about the rural fuel duty at the moment and there are 21 areas in the UK, only three postcodes in England, where people can access the support which is 5p off a litre,

“The retailer applies to HMRC for that discount, and we’re talking about a consultation to expand that to another 20 areas.

“We’d want to consult where that is, but we do expect it to be areas such as the South West, potentially Shropshire, and more areas in Scotland.

“But the other thing that’s important to remember is the fact that the Conservatives promised…a pump watch, so that everybody could fairly look at what the prices at pumps are and access the best deals.

“The only place that exists is in Northern Ireland and they do have the lowest petrol prices in the UK and the Conservatives fail to deliver that. It’s not just about that route of fuel duty.”

She added: “The retailers apply to HMRC for the discount, which they then pass on to consumers. And that’s why the pump watch element is so important too, because we do need to call out where retailers are potentially taking advantage of rural communities where competitiveness is likely to be less and they’ve got less choice about where they go to purchase their fuel.”

Asked if she thought people would be willing to vote for the tax rises unveiled by the party, she said: “We’ve been very clear that when we talk about raising taxes, we’re not talking about National Insurance. We’re not talking about Income Tax, and we’re not talking about VAT.

“What we are talking about is the bank surcharge, the tax cut that the Conservatives gave to the big banks, about cancelling that so that we can use that income to better support our public services.”