Cost of living mission kills off 3p fuel duty rise

It might seem a bit odd to announce a fuel duty freeze on the very day net borrowing for the first two months of the financial year is £3.9b higher than for the same period last year.

The deficit is getting bigger and George Osborne is giving up a tax rise. What’s going on?

There’s a vote next week in the Commons –  not clear how many rebels there would’ve been. Some rebels thought they had 30 or so ready to vote against the government. The whips were sufficiently concerned to be ringing round over the weekend. The newspapers were piling on the pressure. But that was making something the government had already spotted more high profile. Sir Jeremy Heywood’s memos to Whitehall about the importance of the cost of living have become quite a talking point.

They hammer home the prime minister’s message that he desperately wants to make it clear to voters that he “gets it” on the cost of living. The PM ‘s advisers calculate that nothing is more deadly than looking out of touch with families struggling with the bills. Everything is straining to this purpose in No. 10 at the moment – at least that’s the hope. Once cherished environmental credentials can be sacrificed or trimmed in this cause – other pet projects too.

Ed Balls will understandably be crowing that he got in a plea  for freezing the fuel duty on the very day the chancellor announced it. Treasury sources say it was a classic case of the opposition trying to work out what was about to happen and then making sure they called for it.

The government’s insisting this isn’t a u-turn because they’re simply dismantling or amending Labour’s planned fuel prices increases. Well, George Osborne had other opportunities to dismantle those policies; he announced his own measures in the autumn statement last year and the budget this year, and so you could argue that they are his policies.

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