Nigel Farage vows to reverse fuel duty increase in Reform petrol station stunt

Nigel Farage has staged a petrol station stunt to highlight his pledge to reverse the Government’s planned fuel duty hike by scrapping “lunatic” green levies.

The Reform UK leader announced the policy at a forecourt in Derbyshire where the price board was covered in the party’s turquoise branding with the lettering “Reform Refuel” and “25p off with Farage”, putting a litre of diesel at £1.43 and a litre of unleaded at £1.21.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has resisted calls to cancel the planned 5p increase in fuel duty in response to the oil price spike caused by the Iran conflict.

Speaking at Newhaven services on Tuesday, Mr Farage said: “The way we sneakily do tax in this country means there’s about 6p going on a litre of petrol staged over the course of the next few months. This is just about the last time this should happen. The cost of living is really impacting…

“How are we going to pay for not increasing taxes? Well, we’re going to get rid of lunatic green levies. In particular, I’m thinking about heat pump subsidies.”

A Reform UK government would save £13 billion a year by cutting spending on net zero initiatives, the party’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said.

Mr Jenrick, who recently defected from the Tories, said a Reform government’s first budget would “bring down the cost of fuel by taking at least 5p off the cost of fuel every time you fill up”.

He said: “We’re announcing £13 billion of savings from Ed Miliband’s department, scrapping a lot of the net zero madness that is impoverishing people, de-industrialising our country right now.”

The party would scrap the scheme providing grants to homeowners to install heat pumps, cut investment in carbon capture technologies, and axe grants for new electric vehicles, he said.

Mr Farage also vowed to abolish the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas, something the Labour Government has already signalled it will do.

Oil prices have soared since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran, reaching near four-year-highs above 100 US dollars per barrel on Monday, before falling to 91 dollars a barrel on Tuesday as Donald Trump said the war could soon be over.

Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011, and was cut by 5p in 2022 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At her budget last year, Ms Reeves said the 5p cut would be unwound between September 2026 and March 2027.

Mr Farage and Mr Jenrick also faced questions about their party’s inconsistent position on whether Britain should back the US’s military action against Iran.

Deputy leader Richard Tice and Reform member and former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi have previously said the UK should join the bombing, while Mr Farage has sent mixed messages.

He told journalists on Tuesday that “if we can’t even defend Cyprus, let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war”, and “I would say, it’s no to boots on the ground”.