FairFuel UK: Industry-funded Campaign Group Seeks to Pressure Treasury into Fuel Duty U-turn

Rich
on

Rumours began swirling in February that the upcoming budget could bring the UKโ€™s 10-year freeze on fuel duty to an end. Since then, an industry-funded pressure group has been furiously campaigning for the new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to abandon the plannedย change.

FairFuel claims to enjoy the support of 146 MPs and 1.7 million British drivers but has been accused by campaigners of having โ€œno credible solutionsโ€ to the twin problems of localised air pollution and climateย change.

The Kent-based campaign opposes low emission zones in cities, which it says are based on โ€œflawed health dataโ€, and criticises the โ€œperennial demonisation of van drivers, hauliers and motoristsโ€ on its website.

Fronting the effort are former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson and political lobbyist Howard Cox, who recently tweeted that the BBC was โ€œworshipping at the altar of Greta Thunbergโ€ and that the public needed to โ€œhear both sides of the climate changeย argumentโ€.

Despite urging its supporters to vote Conservative at the general election, with warnings that a Corbyn victory would usher in a โ€œpathologically anti-motorist political eraโ€, FairFuel has gone into all-out attack mode in recentย weeks.

Feverishย lobbying

FairFuel declares it has saved drivers ยฃ100 billion in taxes since 2011, when George Osborne introduced a fuel duty freeze that has been in place everย since.

But that could be about to change, as the government looks for ways to bolster its green credentials ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, while raising more revenue for its big infrastructure investmentย plans.


Can you help support DeSmog’s work? Become a patronย today!


The group has teamed up with the longstanding โ€œKeep it Downโ€ campaign run by The Sun, which is publishing daily articles on the damage it says a 2p per litre fuel duty increase would do to the Toriesโ€™ new support base in so-called โ€œRed Wallโ€ย seats.

Two weeks ago, it claimed credit for pressuring the government into shelving the plans, after The Times reported that the policy was being dropped, though the group had admitted fuel duty could go up in the coming years and they would โ€œneed to start lobbyingย againโ€.

With the fuel duty โ€œunfreezeโ€ now seemingly back on the table for Wednesdayโ€™s budget, however, FairFuel released a poll at the end of last week claiming almost half of drivers who voted for Boris Johnson in December would abandon the party at the next election if the government increased fuelย duty.

Meanwhile, 36 Tory MPs, including former Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, former Brexit Secretary David Davis and former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, have writtenย to the Chancellor warningย him against raising fuel duty by 2p per litre, according to the Telegraph.ย The Sun reported last week that 53 MPs had signed theย letter.

The MPs argue thatย green measures should not be put โ€œon the backs of working peopleโ€ and that the government should not be not โ€œwhacking normal folk hard with higher taxes onย fuelโ€.

Thatโ€™s not a view shared by the Green Party, whose finance spokesperson Molly Scott Cato said: โ€œWhen the impacts of the climate crisis can be seen all around us, it clearly makes no sense to keep tax incentives which encourage the burning of more fossilย fuels.โ€

She said the extra revenue should be spent on a โ€œpublic transport revolution, providing reliable and affordable bus and rail services across the UK.โ€

Industry-backed

While FairFuelโ€™s message may be clear, how the group financially supports itself is less wellย known.

It does not publicly disclose the levels of funding received from different sources and did not respond to questions fromย DeSmog.

FairFuel is, however, open about who its โ€œfounding backersโ€ are on its website: the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association, both of which represent road transportย companies.

Previous funders also include the automotive services company RAC,ย the trade association for liquefied petroleum gas and biopropane renewable gas companies Liquid Gas UK, and the Association of Pallet Networks, a haulage industry group which still supports FairFuel, according to its website.

Both the FTA and RHA have been actively lobbying against the introduction of Clean Air Zones in key cities, designed to tackle illegal levels of air pollution as part of a nationwide governmentย strategy.

Chris Yarsley, policy manager for the Midlands at the FTA, welcomed the news last week that Coventry would no longer be required to implement a CAZ, arguing that other measures like cycle infrastructure investment would โ€œdeliver quicker, more sustainable improvements to air quality without penalising hard-working localย businessesโ€.

The RHA said plans for a โ€œpunitiveโ€ and โ€œanti-businessโ€ CAZ in Manchester could lead to hauliers โ€œgoingย bustโ€.

But Jonathan Ritson, Policy Analyst at the Green Alliance, told DeSmog that Londonโ€™s Toxicity Charge and subsequent Ultra Low Emission Zone were the only schemes that had โ€œradically reduced NOx concentrations at the city levelโ€. He said the policies, which the latest figures suggest have reduced the number of illegal NOx concentrations by 97 percent, had โ€œproved to be the only effective way of changing the behaviour of businesses andย individualsโ€.

โ€œAs more cities adopt clean air zones to meet their legally binding air quality targets, a number of scrappage and retrofitting schemes are being made available to help businesses adapt,โ€ he said, recommending that businesses seek out support from their localย authorities.

Parliamentaryย support

FairFuelย has a number of close allies in the House ofย Commons.

Harlow MP Robert Halfon is the groupโ€™s most vocal advocate, having co-organised a petition in 2011 calling for a planned fuel duty increase to be scrapped and the creation of a commission to explore โ€œradical ways of cutting fuel taxes in the longerย termโ€.

Halfon is one of a number of Conservative MPs to have recently taken donations from hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze, and has previously received financial support from the businessman Edward Atkin. Both are donors to the climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation, whose widely criticised reports have been publicised by FairFuel on a number ofย occasions.

Other MPs that have spoken out in support of the campaign include Conservatives Jack Lopresti and Peter Aldous, and DUP MP Sammy Wilson, who has described climate change as a โ€œgiganticย conโ€.

Up until the general election, the group administered an โ€œall-party parliamentary groupโ€, which brought together MPs to support itsย campaigns.

The APPG on Fair Fuel for Motorists and Hauliers, which dates back to at least 2015, was chaired by Scottish Conservative MP Douglas Ross and included Tory MPs Kirstene Hair and Julian Knight, Labour MPs Mary Glindon and Rosie Cooper, SNP MPs Martyn Day and Angus MacNeil, and DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr, according to official records.

Downplayingย concerns

As calls for stronger clean air measures have grown in recent years, FairFuel has increasingly sought to dismiss what it describes as โ€œemotive and dubious air qualityย claimsโ€.

Spokesman Quentin Willson has claimed air pollution is responsible for a premature loss of life of only half a day a year, while a recent study estimated air pollution was shortening life expectancy by an average of three years globally, and one and a half in the UK.

Willson has also written that private car drivers are being unfairly targeted in London, calling them a โ€œrelatively narrow band of polluters at 11 percent of NOx [nitrogen oxides]โ€, when official figures show roughly half of polluting emissions in London are caused by roadย transport.

Its website states that โ€œ97.8 percentย of drivers firmly believe political decision makers prefer to take the easy option by fleecing extra cash from hard-working drivers, families, small businesses and hauliersโ€ but did not clarify where this figure had come from when contacted byย DeSmog.

Rather than implementing low emission zones like Londonโ€™s ULEZ, which FairFuel says are unnecessary, the groupโ€™s only proposed solutions are โ€œcatalystsโ€, to be added to motorย fuel.

Greg Archer, UK Director of the Transport & Environment NGO, likened these to โ€œalchemists trying to turn lead into goldโ€. He said FairFuel has โ€œno credible solutions to the UKโ€™s toxic air or climate emergency. The fuel duty freeze has added the equivalent of 2.5 million cars to the UKโ€™s roads. Itโ€™s time for motorists to start paying their way again after a 10 year taxย break.โ€

When approached for comment, the Treasury said it could not comment on โ€œbudget speculationโ€. FairFuel did not respond to a request toย comment.

Photo credit: DUP Photos/Flickr/CC BYNCNDย 2.0

Rich
Rich was the UK team's Deputy Editor from 2020-22 and an Associate Editor until September 2023. He joined the organisation in 2018 as a UK-focused investigative reporter, having previously worked for the climate charity Operation Noah.

Related Posts

Analysis
on

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.
on

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.
on

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.
Analysis
on

The final two Conservative candidates have worrying records on green issues.

The final two Conservative candidates have worrying records on green issues.