Escalator stays says Redwood
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• The government has no intention of ending the fuel duty escalator, according to Shadow Transport Secretary John Redwood.
"The government is continuing to tax hauliers off the road," he says. "It is nonsense that they are stopping the escalator." Conservative party officials say this claim is substantiated in Labour's pre-Budget report.
This report, which was published last November, projects total inland revenue from fuel duty at £23.5bn; up C4% from the 1999-2000 financial year which is estimated at £22.5bn.
Redwood predicts that the vast proportion will be spent on spin" or "on more of Prescott's traffic mismanagement policies", adding: "The Conservative Party want.
make travel easier. We don't think the answer it to restrict expenditure on roads."