Emotions were running high ahead of today’s meeting between fuel bosses and government ministers who are pointing the finger at forecourts for increased prices at the pump.
As trade associations and forecourt operators were preparing to make their case to Chancellor Rachel Reeves and energy secretary Ed Miliband at Downing Street this afternoon, there was no let-up in the inflammatory rhetoric from government.
Keir Starmer took to X claiming that “If fuel companies try to rip off customers, my government will step in”, adding that Reeves and Miliband are “bringing the bosses of the fuel companies in today, to make sure that customers aren’t losing out because of the conflict in the Middle East”.
Language like that may be designed to appeal to motorists, frustrated at having to pay more at the pump and not always a natural constituency for the Labour Party. However, it is not helping to calm tempers, and forecourt staff are in the firing line. One operator says that the constant barrage of customers venting their spleen to employees about increased prices has meant that he has to limit the time individuals in his team work the tills to give them a break.
At the same time as forecourt firms are being blamed for passing on the wholesale prices that they themselves face, they are being hit with the double whammy of increased attempts of fuel theft.
Since the start of the Iran conflict pushing the price of fuel up, petrol stations are experiencing more drive-offs and no means of payment instances.
But talking to petrol station owners, the hardest thing has been to face accusations of “ripping off”, a term initially used by Rachel Reeves against petrol station owners at last October’s Budget.
These so-called rip-off merchants toil seven days a week, sometimes 24 hours a day, providing an essential community service, fuelling, feeding and watering the Great British public, whether that is someone popping in to top up their shopping or a shift worker filling their tank at 4am.
It is not by chance that in this week’s Convenience Awards around a third of the accolades – six in fact – went to petrol station owners.
These are entrepreneurial, dynamic businesses that help drive the engine of the UK economy.
Perhaps Rachel Reeves and her team should look at getting their own house in order and announce that the fuel duty freeze will remain in place for the foreseeable future, rather than pointing the finger at a sector which has very little control over price rises sparked by the decision of a US President to launch a war in the Middle East
