Theresa May confirms she will freeze fuel duty — saving motorists £50bn — in HUGE victory for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign

THERESA MAY was urged to follow her fuel duty freeze with more tax breaks – as experts said The Sun’s ‘Keep It Down’ campaign had saved motorists £50billion.

The PM yesterday confirmed she was freezing duty for the ninth year in a row – to “put more money in the pockets of hard-working people”.

Campaigners reacted with delight – and called for the PM to do even more for ‘strivers’ battling a ever higher cost of living.

Tory ex-Minister Rob Halfon said: “Thanks to the Sun motorists are not going to be taken for a ride with extra taxes. The freeze will help with the cost of living and boost our economy.”

Treasury insiders said Philip Hammond had wanted to up the tax – but was worried about a huge backlash from Tory backbenchers and campaigners.

One senior Tory said: “Philip eventually realized a freeze was politically inevitable. Now we have to do more of this.”

The Sun launched Keep it Down in 2011 – forcing ex-Chancellor George Osborne to cut duty by a penny and freeze it at the lower level.

This year’s freeze will cost the Treasury an estimated £800 million.

But the Institute of Fiscal Studies said it brought the total amount of revenue “forgone” by the Treasury - and saved by motorists - to roughly £55 billion.

This is money the Treasury would have pocketed from motorists if duty had gone up in line with inflation over the past eight years.

Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell demanded Philip Hammond explain “how he will fill the hole in his Budget”.

AA president Edmund King warned he feared the Treasury would now seek to hit motorists by increasing Insurance Premium Tax in the Budget.

But campaign group FairFuel UK said the freeze would boost economy growth, jobs and consumer spending. FairFuel co-founder Howard Cox said: “Theresa May’s announcement is enormously welcome.

“The environmental lobby may be upset. But let’s not forget the UK has one of the highest fuel duties in the world at 57.95ppl. German fuel duty coes in at 50.5ppl, Australia is at 21ppl and the USA’s average level is 10.4ppl.”

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