Liz Truss will look at reviving a project said to have been thwarted by Rishi Sunak in which oil companies fund petrol vouchers for pensioners.
Downing Street officials held discussions with the bosses of large firms on the prospect of a voluntary scheme to reduce the cost of living.
Under the proposals, the oil colossi would have funnelled some of their profits into a fund that would have been utilised to assist those who are struggling.
Bernard Looney, the chief executive of BP, is understood to have been a supporter of the ideas and was prepared to put in more than £1 billion.
Instead of going ahead with the plan as chancellor, Rishi Sunak chose instead to levy a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, and a source close to Liz Truss said Rishi Sunak thwarted it because he’s only keen on ideas he thinks of himself, but Liz Truss said that she would look again at the proposals for a voluntary scheme if she becomes Prime Minister.
The Tory leadership favourite has ruled out imposing a further windfall tax on oil and gas firms, but her camp has said she won’t ditch the current levy introduced by Rishi Sunak earlier this year.
Petrol prices are already starting to relax thanks to plunging wholesale rates, just weeks after they hit a record high. Wholesale prices fell 10p a litre by the start of July, 20p by the middle of July, and 30p from August 4.
The AA has said prices at the pumps are on course to drop below 160p a litre.
Figures collected by the motoring body revealed petrol was on average 175.2p a litre, which is substantially down on the record of 191.5p set on July 3.
Diesel also seems to be dropping, from 190.01p a litre a fortnight ago to 185.9p last week. Rishi Sunak slashed fuel duty by 5p a litre in March but encountered ridicule when he posed for a photo opportunity at a Sainsbury’s in London.
It emerged the Kia Rio he was filling up belonged to a supermarket employee. He also struggled with his contactless card.
Rishi Sunak’s supporters insisted his campaign was not doomed even as a poll showed Liz Truss maintains a commanding lead.
With only three weeks until Britain’s next prime minister is picked, the Opinium survey puts the Foreign Secretary 22 points ahead.
However, Liz Truss is clutching at straws because pensioners need lower home utility bills, not lower petrol, although that would be nice too, but of course, people will be forced by Liz Truss to be grateful for her charity. And of course, it’s never noted how they will eliminate the benefits to the hundreds of scroungers coming to the United Kingdom every day in their dingies.
And Liz Truss knows perfectly well that pensioners most in need likely don’t own a car, that’s because they can’t damn well afford one! So, what’s the point of petrol vouchers? And this is not only ridiculous but condescending as well.
Petrol prices should be lowered because people need to get to work, and essential for trips and businesses.
What about giving pensioners a decent pension and decreasing the pension age down to 60 years old again because at the moment all the government want you to do is work till you drop, in the hope that by the time you’ve actually got to pension age you’ll be dead anyhow.
There are people out there that will have worked all their life, but will never see the pension that they paid into – this is called stealing money that doesn’t belong to the government, but they will keep it anyhow because they won’t care once you’re dead.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 