Liam Halligan: The Government must scrap the VAT on household fuel bills

On Monday, as regular viewers know, On the Money launched the very first GB News campaign.

As the cost-of-living spirals, with hard-working households facing inflation, incoming tax rises in April and spiralling gas and electricity costs, we’re highlighting the case for scrapping VAT on household fuel bills. As we said when we launched GB News last June, “if it matters to you, it matters to us”.

Since we launched our campaign, the Labour party on Tuesday devoted an opposition day debate to precisely that, pressuring the government to scrap VAT on household fuel bills.

And yesterday, after Tory MP Anne Marie Morris supported that Labour vote to scrap the Vat, the government removed the Conservative whip from her – the equivalent of Parliamentary slap on the wrist.

Morris stood her ground, saying she wouldn’t apologise for, as she put it, “standing up for what I believe to be the best interests of my constituents, supporting efforts to address the rising cost of living".

Perhaps she’s been watching On The Money?

She certainly understands her voters are deeply concerned. There are growing calls for the government to cut back on subsidies to promote renewable energy and other environmental measures – funded in part by a 25pc levy on the energy bills paid by firms and households.I can’t see that happening anytime soon – and certainly not in time to address the assault on living standards that’s coming in April, when both higher taxes and even higher energy bills kick-in.

But scrapping the VAT would save the average household at least one hundred pounds a year and can be done instantly. While we were in the European Union, such a move was impossible. Post-Brexit, now we fully control our taxes, removing VAT on fuel bills is entirely in the government’s gift.

And that’s why, as our GB News campaign gathers pace, we are asking once again, for the government to Scrap The Vat.