Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — amendment of the law

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister – in the House of Commons at 5:37 pm on 24 March 2010.

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Photo of David Heath David Heath Shadow Leader of the House of Commons 5:37, 24 March 2010

That is absolutely the case. [ Interruption. ] I hear Rob Marris-sotto voce and from a sedentary position-saying, "Very green." However, there are green alternatives, such as a road pricing solution, which would dissuade people from using private cars where there were proper public transport alternatives, but not penalise people who rely on their cars because they have no alternative. That is the sort of scheme I would like to see.

While I am on the subject of fuel, I have an awful lot of hauliers in my constituency whose businesses are facing straitened circumstances. They are constantly under attack, in competitive terms, from hauliers from continental Europe, who pay a great deal less for their fuel. There is an easy solution to that, one I advocate and would have liked to hear today: to restrict the amount of fuel that can be brought into this country in a lorry, which, incidentally, would also have a safety bonus. Doing that would mean that hauliers from continental Europe working in this country would have to pay our price for diesel, not a continental price. At the moment they nip over with a full tank, do their business in Britain, undercutting our hauliers, and then go back and fill up on the other side of the channel. That cannot be a proper competitive practice.