Last week outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the Commons Liaison Select Committee that it was “certainly the case that we will need a substitute for fuel duty”. However, he was forced to defend himself when Conservative MP and chair of the Transport Select Committee Huw Merriman accused No 10 of blocking the Treasury over the past three months from setting up a working body to investigate the issue.
No 10 would not comment on the allegations when approached by E&T.
But Labour MP Ben Bradshaw told E&T that the delay was “typical of the fantasy economics that has been pedalled for the last two and a half years by Boris Johnson and has been reinforced by virtually all of the Tory leadership contenders”.
“We are going to have a massive hole in the public finances due to the transition to electric vehicles and the accompanying fall in excise duty and fuel duty,” he said.
Bradshaw, who sits on the Transport Select Committee, added...