𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour really is taking us all for fools.

Next week – on April 1 no less – the price of filling up an average-sized family car is likely to cost £100.

The price of diesel is now £175.73 a litre – 33p or 23.4% more expensive than on February 28. Petrol is now £149.44 a litre – a 16.6p or 12.5% hike in less than one month.

It is now almost certain diesel will break the 180p-a-litre barrier in the coming days.

If it reaches 182p the price of filling a tank would breach the three-figure mark. And if petrol climbs to 150p, as seems inevitable, it will take the cost of filling up to £82.50.

Britain is in the slow lane thanks to the misery unleashed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Her dithering and delay have seen us overtaken by China, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Thailand – countries which have already introduced caps on retail fuel prices.

In Taiwan, for example, 60% of price hikes are absorbed through a Government mechanism.

Germany and Austria limit how often stations can ramp up prices.

France has introduced price ceilings and increased inspections to prevent gouging. And many other countries – Spain, Portugal, and Sweden among them – are using alternatives like VAT or excise tax cuts to keep prices lower.

Yet here in the UK, motorists are seen as cash cows to be mercilessly milked, as the Government says warm words but shows indifference to stopping shameless profiteering at the pumps.

While Ms Reeves and her net zero zealot colleague Ed Miliband stand idly by, families, businesses, and the economy continue to suffer.

The pair have told the fuel industry they will be watching pump prices during the mounting oil crisis and said any attempt to profit would not be tolerated. They’ve clearly taken their eyes off the ball.

The blockade in the Hormuz Strait, which has choked supplies, has exposed the fact that Britain has no contingency plan and is music to their ears.

Why? The Treasury is pocketing an extra £91m a month in VAT on fuel sales – a figure equal to more than £1bn a year.

Here in the tax-grabbing UK, drivers face a double whammy at the pumps with fuel duty, a form of excise tax, levied at a flat rate of 52.95p per litre for both petrol and diesel. This rate has been frozen since 2011-12.

In addition to fuel duty, VAT is also charged on both the product price and the duty at a rate of 20%.

For too long, this regressive taxation has clobbered those Labour claims to champion – the working classes.

But as forecourt fuel rockets Labour’s passivity over pump-price rip-offs has led some to predict inflation – already at 3% – will increase by 0.3% further hitting those struggling to make ends meet.

Timing-wise, things couldn’t be worse. Next week, household bills are set to rise for tens of millions of families suffocating under an already unbearable cost-of-living crisis.

And yet four weeks after the US-Israel-led war on Iran – and with petrol profiteering rampant – this Government’s inaction says it all.

While most of the rest of the world is already helping its drivers, Labour has left British motorists stranded.

They claim to care about the working classes, but after snatching £66bn in two disastrous budgets – and this fandango over fuel – it shows they really couldn’t give a hoot and are happy to profit from war.

On your side? You must be joking.