CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling was facing a fresh challenge from MPs over plans to raise vehicle excise duty on the most polluting cars registered since 2001.
The Tories say 2.3m families will have to pay between £100 and £245 more on cars they already own.
Some 69 MPs, including 49 Labour, are urging ministers to reconsider so the higher rates apply only to new cars.
MPs will debate the vehicle excise duty plans, which the Treasury says will mean 66 per cent of drivers will pay less or no more. The battle will begin just a day after the government avoided a potential revolt over the abolition of the 10p tax rate.
About 20 Labour MPs were threatening to rebel unless there was more help for the 1.1m low-paid people who lost out after Mr Darling's £2.7bn compensation package for the 10p tax losers.
But the rebels backed down after Treasury Minister Jane Kennedy promised the chancellor would deal with the issue in his pre-Budget report in the autumn.
But today attention will turn to the controversial increase in vehicle excise duty (VED).
Under the plans, owners of some of the oldest cars could face a tax rise of around £200 - a move which the Conservatives and many Labour MPs say will hit poorer drivers the hardest.
A spokesman for Greenpeace said the plan to bring in higher taxes on cars which people have already bought `gives green taxes a bad name'.
He believes it should just apply to new cars, rather than forcing people to pay for a choice made in the past.
But Tim Yeo, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, said while MPs would debate whether the new rates were being introduced too quickly, the principle was correct.
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Battle over road tax hike
July 02, 2008
Showing comments 1 to 15 and replies | View All
polkyb (02/07/2008 at 12:31)
CO2 has never been proven to influence the climate in any way yet the politicians are using this myth/lie as a club to take all your cash.
Black Flag (02/07/2008 at 12:56)
polkyb (02/07/2008 at 13:21)
My theory goes like this.
More CO2 = Better harvests = more food/Biofuel
Surely better than lower CO2 and lower crop yields?
better off red (02/07/2008 at 14:13)
Pretty much every "cast-iron" statement you'll find forced down your throat is borne of stats from a research fellow. Stats don't amount to much in the face of cold hard facts.
So I wouldn't discount the global warming theories but they are just that, theories.
Black Flag (02/07/2008 at 14:18)
CO2 is water soluble and increases the acidity of water, so massively increasing CO2 might prove your crop yield theory true, but might also increase the acidity of the sea and kill off great swathes of marine life in the process, which might not be quite so good.
citycentre, manchester (02/07/2008 at 15:01)
maybe more CO2 is better for land plants, but it also dissolves in water thus making the seas more acidic, which is very bad for corals, which in turn support large quantites of sea life from plankton upwards
polkyb (02/07/2008 at 15:13)
Now's who's being farfetched. Don't believe everything the IPCC releases... I pretty sure that the sea's acidity won't be affected that much, bearing in mind it's salt content.... Even if you DO believe them then surely all the (non)melting arctic ice would compensate?
Also think of the CO2 cycle, which is the base line for the current increases. The sun (main cause of climate change) warms the sea which releases gases including water vapour (2nd highest cause of climate change) and C02 (almost insignificant cause of climate change). These gases are then absorbed by rain water and washed back into the sea... where the cycle begins again.
Check out globalwarminhoax dot com... It’s a mine of useful and up to date research which compound almost everything the IPCC and the government are telling us.
Councillor Allheart, in a black cab (02/07/2008 at 15:27)
Mike S, Manchester (02/07/2008 at 15:29)
According to the Telegraph, there are currently 26 million drivers in the UK. That means 8.84 million people are going to be hit with YET ANOTHER tax.
Anyone fancy emigrating with me?
Black Flag (02/07/2008 at 15:33)
I don't, but by the same token, I'm not going to accept that increasing CO2 to the maximum possible level is a good idea on the basis of your very simplistic model. I don't believe anything out of hand and I'm still open minded about the whole issue of climate change. You seem to expect people to subject the IPCC's opinions to the highest level of scrutiny, but to accept your beliefs without question.
"I pretty sure that the sea's acidity won't be affected that much"
That's fine then. So long as you're confident, there's no need to waste our time with any research.
suge, mancs (02/07/2008 at 15:47)
polkyb (02/07/2008 at 15:56)
My BELIEF is that whatever we do, the Earth will, in almost all cases, compensate for it in one way or another. That's MY belief, NOT yours and I would NEVER try to force my belief on to another, although I do reserve the right to voice them and I would think much less of you if you didn’t question them.
"So long as you're confident, there's no need to waste our time with any research." - Is this lifted from the IPCC website? :-)
Now, we're very off topic here, let's discuss taxes again... I almost agree with most of what you have to say about that. ;-)
Councillor Allheart, in a black cab (02/07/2008 at 16:11)
Black Flag (02/07/2008 at 16:11)
Well, I based that on the fact you said:
"CO2 is NOT a polutant. It is ESSENTIAL to life on this planet and the more there is, the better off we are."
jj openminded (02/07/2008 at 21:52)
Again the motorist is an easy target for a non-driving anti-car dimwit!
Did TOP GEAR not prove a valid point when they compareda a lap of their track with a toyota prius and a brand new BMW M3?
The prius is presented as a vehicle for the environment, yet the nickle in the batteries is mined in Canada, shipped to Holland for manufacture of the cells then transport to another part of Europe before being shipped to China to be completed before shipping to japan to be built in to the car.....How environmentally friendly does that make the prius?....