Two-week warning to Petrol drivers who must pay £43 extra to keep car on road

Drivers would face a 5p a litre rise in fuel duty from November 1

Motorists could be hit with a £43 tax hike if Labour pushes through its significant Budget plans. The proposal for a 5p per litre increase in fuel duty could generate approximately £2 billion annually, translating to an extra £43 per annum for petrol drivers and an additional £39 for diesel users.

Reeves is eyeing up to £40 billion worth of tax increases and spending cuts in this month's Budget, according to government sources speaking to the BBC. At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, she informed ministers that merely bridging the "£22bn black hole inheritance from the previous government" wouldn't suffice "to keep public services standing still".

Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out to BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the substantial shortfall in the public coffers was a longstanding issue, albeit underrepresented in earlier election campaign narratives this year.

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With her initial budget set to be unveiled in two weeks, the Chancellor has assured that there won't be a rerun of austerity measures during her tenure. In a cabinet discussion on Tuesday, she highlighted a looming £100bn finance gap within the UK's public sector over the next five-year period.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister also contributed some remarks on Wednesday, declaring: "We were honest with the British public, both during the election and since, about the scale of the challenge that we would face. One of the first things the chancellor did when we came in was do an audit of the books and found a £22bn black hole that the previous government lied about and covered up."

Reeves would need to make tax rises and spending cuts totalling £40bn in this month's Budget, as she highlighted at a political cabinet meeting that filling the "£22bn black hole inheritance from the previous government" would merely enable "to keep public services standing still," factors cited by Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He affirmed that while the "very big hole in public finances" is not new, it was downplayed during this year's earlier election campaigns.

The chancellor is in the last stages of preparing her maiden budget, due in two weeks, vowing to avoid a return to austerity policies. Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Reeves underscored that the country's public finances are expected to encounter a £100bn deficit over the subsequent five years.

In response, the prime minister's spokesperson articulated on Wednesday: "We were honest with the British public, both during the election and since, about the scale of the challenge that we would face. One of the first things the chancellor did when we came in was do an audit of the books and found a £22bn black hole that the previous government lied about and covered up."

When questioned about the government's budgetary decisions, the spokesperson stated: "I think both the PM and the chancellor have been clear that there are tough choices [and] that we will level with the public about why we have to make them," citing "the £22bn in-year black hole that the Conservatives left" as the reason for these pressures.