Boris Johnson weighs up bumper 2p fuel duty cut in first motoring tax reduction for eight years

BORIS Johnson is weighing up a 2p per litre fuel duty cut in the first reduction to the hated motoring tax for eight years.

Senior sources confirmed the Government would announce the sky-high duty will be slashed in the upcoming Budget in a huge victory for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign.

Boris Johnson is weighing up a bumper 2p per litre fuel duty cut in the first reduction to motoring tax for eight yearsCredit: EPA

Duty would come down by at least a penny. But industry insiders said officials were considering a 2p cut — costing the Treasury £1.5billion.

Howard Cox of Fair Fuel UK said: “This would have a huge positive impact on business, on inflation, on consumer spending and GDP.”

Hauliers said Boris would be “saving jobs” in an industry that has seen the biggest number of firms go to the wall for 12 years.

Road Haulage Association chief Richard Burnett said: “It seems the penny, quite literally, is beginning to drop.”

George Osborne cut fuel duty in 2011 after a huge campaign from The Sun and organisations such as Fair Fuel UK. It has been frozen at 57.95p per litre ever since.

In the Tory leadership contest, Boris Johnson said he would “love” to be able to continue the freeze if he made it to No.10.

The Sun says

IT’LL be a huge sigh of relief from Britain’s drivers if, as expected, Boris and Saj team up to cut fuel duty.

For years we’ve been told a freeze is all we could expect.

Naysayers said it would “cost” the Treasury too much — ignoring the fact that a tax cut doesn’t cost anything, it just leaves more money in people’s pockets.

Plenty of energy is expended talking about trains and planes, but it’s cars that motor the economy. Ordinary families dropping the kids off at school, driving to work, doing the weekly shop.

For too long they haven’t had a break. Here’s hoping.

Challenged at the G7 in Biarritz about the pledge, he said he was unable to comment on “fiscal events”.

But a Downing Street source said: “People need help with the cost of living and cutting fuel duty is one way we can help.”

AA president Edmund King said: “Thanks to continued pressure from The Sun’s Keep it Down campaign, this is the first cut in fuel duty for nearly a decade.”