The Tories’ new Pumpwatch scheme is a great victory – now they must go further to keep costs down for drivers

A MUSCULAR Pumpwatch scheme which drives down fuel prices by fining rip-off forecourts will be fantastic for motorists and a big achievement by the Tories.

And when Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho promises to hammer profiteers within just half an hour if they fail to cut unfair tariffs she is talking exactly our language.

We hope she’s serious about that rapid action.

Because this scheme has been a very long time coming.

The Sun first backed it eight years ago.

The Government must get on with it now.

Making it voluntary has not worked . . . look at the disgusting 18p-a-litre margins still charged on diesel and 12p on unleaded.

Once they have sorted fuel, the Tories must probe the soaring insurance bills punishing blameless drivers of all ages.

Comprehensive cover is up a third in a year on top of huge rises the year before.

Teenagers being quoted £3,000-plus is absurd and unsustainable.

A generation priced out of the housing market will soon be priced off the road too.

Labour has rightly flagged this issue but, as ever, offers no answers.

Its many causes include rampant inflation on parts and labour, the huge cost of repairing modern motors — especially electric ones — and the police all but giving up on car theft.

And there are sneaky industry rip-offs too.

Insurance is mandatory in law, so it is monstrously unjust to leave drivers at the mercy of four-figure bills for it.

Every bit as unfair as fuel price gouging.

Let’s put a brake on both.

WRONG EDDED

VOTERS decided nine years ago that Ed Miliband was a dud.

But if the polls are right this obsessive ideologue is months away from ruling over us anyway . . . trusted by Keir Starmer to run our energy needs.

Expect power cuts, then.

And massive new Net Zero bills, as Tory energy chief Claire Coutinho warns.

It was Miliband, during Labour’s last stint in power, who first clobbered us with green levies — a mere taste of what is likely to come.

Utility bills don’t trouble a millionaire MP whose London mansion is famous for having two kitchens.

If elected, though, his bills WOULD trouble you.

SEX LESSONS

YOUNG kids do not need to be taught about oral sex, or woke fantasies about multiple gender identities.

Those who believe they do are warped.

So ordering teachers to stick to the birds and bees from nine to 13 is common sense.

The problem, though, is social media and the explicit material it pumps out.

How should teachers handle questions from confused children about that?