Conservatives to force vote to axe Labour’s fuel tax rise

• Conservatives will use Opposition Day Debate to force a vote to axe Labour's planned fuel duty rise.
• Labour's plan will reverse the Conservatives' 5p fuel duty cut, marking the first increase in fuel duty in 15 years and hitting drivers already facing rising costs.
• The motion calls on the Government to maintain the 5p cut introduced by the Conservative Government and stop higher fuel taxes being imposed on commuters, businesses, and families.

Tomorrow [Wednesday 18^th March 2026], the Conservative Party will use an Opposition Day Debate motion to force a vote in Parliament to axe Labour's fuel tax rise.

Drivers are being taken for a ride. For the first time in 15 years, fuel duty is heading up the road, with a 5p rise being phased in from September just as global oil prices accelerate.

Families are already running on empty after £60 billion worth of Labour tax hikes, and now, the Chancellor is about to put another squeeze on drivers. Labour is slamming the brakes on relief and putting the pedal down on higher taxes.

Conservative Party analysis has revealed the Chancellor is increasing fuel duty by £156 for an average household with two petrol cars, between March 2026 and March 2029, a cumulative increase of £224, or £448 for a household with two petrol cars.

Fuel duty was frozen or cut every year under the previous Conservative Government. Labour has chosen a different route of higher welfare spending and higher taxes on drivers. Labour are shifting the burden onto commuters, delivery drivers and small businesses who rely on their vehicles every day.

The Conservatives have tabled an Opposition Day motion to block the rise and force Labour MPs to decide whether they stand with drivers or with higher taxes. The motion calls on the Government to maintain the 5p cut introduced by the Conservative Government beyond September this year and axe the fuel tax rise.

As global tension rise cause prices to rise, and as Ed Miliband's Net Zero by 2050 zealotry leaves the UK dangerously exposed to external shocks, Labour MPs will now need to decide whether they will put the national interest ahead of party politics, and back the motion. 

Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, said:

“It is disgusting that Labour are planning to hike fuel duty in the middle of an energy crisis.

“For 14 years Conservative governments froze and even cut fuel duty, because we back drivers. Tomorrow I'm going to hold a vote in Parliament and force Labour MPs to decide whether they're on the side of families and businesses that rely on their vehicles, or they are going to prop up Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves' terrible decisions yet again.”

Richard Holden MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, said:

“Labour want to take drivers for a ride with three fuel tax rises just as families are running on empty thanks to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves economic vandalism. 

“This is a tax on work, a tax on travel and a tax on the millions of drivers who keep Britain moving. It will hit commuters, hammer hauliers and drive-up prices in every shop in Britain.

“Conservatives are the only team willing and able to hold Labour to account and with a plan to back British drivers. They should axe the fuel tax rise now.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Opposition Day Motion:

That this House believes that it is wrong to increase the main fuel duty rates on 1 September, then again on 1 December this year, with a further increase on 1 March 2027, by a total of five pence per litre (ppl), as global oil prices are rising, and these increases will hit drivers, farmers, businesses and other hard-working people already struggling with higher taxes and higher cost of living due to the Government's economic policies, and calls on the Government to maintain the 5ppl cut to the main fuel duty rates introduced by the Conservative Government beyond September this year.

The Chancellor is increasing fuel duty for the first time in 15 years:

• Rachel Reeves confirmed at the Spring Statement that fuel duty will increase by 5p by March 2027 after which it will be uprated by RPI. The 5p cut to fuel duty announced by the Conservatives in 2022 will be reversed between September 2026 and March 2027, after which point it will be uprated by RPI. Fuel duty will increase by 1p in September, 2p in December and 2p next March (OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, 3 March 2026, link; OBR, Economic and Fiscal Outlook, 26 November 2025, link).

• The Chancellor is increasing fuel duty by £156 for an average household with two petrol cars. By reversing the Conservatives 5p cut to fuel duty and increasing fuel duty by RPI from 2027-28, the Chancellor will increase the cost of fuel duty for an average petrol car travelling 7,400 miles per year by £78.10, or £156 for a two car household, from March 2026 to March 2029. Between now and 2029 this represents a cumulate increase of £224, or £448 for a household with two petrol cars (Conservative Research Department Analysis, 9 March 2026, available on request).

• This will be the first increase in fuel duty in 15 years.‘The headline rate on standard petrol and diesel is 52.95 pence per litre, which has been frozen since 2011-12 and includes a temporary 5 pence cut introduced in 2022-23 and subsequently extended to 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26 and some of 2026-27' (OBR, Fuel Duties, 26 November 2025, link).

The Conservatives are calling on the Chancellor to cancel her planned increase to fuel duty:

• The Conservatives have launched a campaign calling on the Chancellor to stop the increases in fuel duty and to allow a vote in Parliament. The Conservatives will tomorrow publish our motion to force a vote in Parliament on the Chancellor's planned increase in fuel duty. The motion will pray against the legislation.

• The Conservatives will reverse the ban on petrol and diesel vehicles so families can choose which car is best for them. The Conservatives will scrap the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, the 2035 ban on hybrid vehicles and the ZEV mandates (The Daily Telegraph, 13 December 2025, link).