Motorists could be hit with a hike in fuel duty if Labour gets into power, Harriet Harman has admitted. The deputy Labour leader has refused to rule out above-inflation increases in taxes on fuel, alcohol, tobacco or air fares. Asked if the party would raise the levy on petrol, she told LBC Radio: ‘We rule out increasing VAT, the basic or the higher rate of tax, we will put up the top rate of tax, we will not put up the national insurance rates. Motorists could be hit with a hike in fuel duty if Labour gets into power, Harriet Harman has admitted . ‘For all the other taxes that there are – you know, airport taxes, I can’t remember what they are called, airport passenger duties, or alcohol duties or tobacco or petrol – we will lay that out in the Budget.’ Chancellor George Osborne yesterday said the remarks showed Labour would bring back the ‘fuel duty escalator’, which raised the levy by the level of inflation plus 1p per litre, scrapped by the Coalition in 2011. He said: ‘Now we know. Ed Miliband will put up taxes on hardworking people. It’s clear he is planning to bring back the last Labour government’s “fuel duty escalator” – the petrol tax that ratcheted up the cost of filling up your tank, all to pay for ever higher spending on welfare and waste. ‘One by one, we are finding out the £3,028 of tax rises for working families Ed Miliband is planning. He must now come clean and set out what the others are.’ Miss Harman was asked to rule out raising fuel duty by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan during a women leaders’ debate on LBC. Chancellor George Osborne yesterday said the remarks showed Labour would bring back the ‘fuel duty escalator’, which raised the levy by the level of inflation plus 1p per litre, scrapped by the Coalition in 2011 . Mrs Morgan said Mr Osborne’s freeze in fuel duty, which has been extended for four and a-half years, had saved the average motorist £680 and was one of the Coalition Government’s biggest achievements. Fuel duty has been frozen for a fifth year in succession, allowing the Chancellor to boast that motorists have had ‘£10 off a tank with the Tories’. Mr Osborne’s announcement in the Budget last month means a 0.54p-per-litre duty rise planned for September 1 will not go ahead. And the freezing of duty over the five years of the Coalition means the average driver spends £10 less per fill-up than if the controversial ‘fuel-price escalator’ had been implemented in full. Between 2011 and 2016, a typical motorist will have saved £675, the Treasury calculated. The planned fuel duty rise by the RPI rate of inflation on September 2015 would have increased the current duty rate by 0.54p per litre – from the current 57.95p to 58.49p. For an average family car fill-up of 55 litres, this would have increased the cost by 30p. The RAC said the above-inflation fuel duty ‘escalator’ that operated between 1993 and 1999 ‘is the primary reason that we now pay nearly 70 per cent in tax on every litre of fuel we buy at the pumps’.
Harriet Harman admitted drivers could be hit if Labour gets into power . Deputy Labour leader refused to rule out above-inflation increases on taxes . George Osborne said it shows Labour will bring back ‘fuel duty escalator’