More than a dozen Tory MPs in ‘Red Wall’ seats have written to the Chancellor warning him not to ‘clobber’ their constituents by hiking fuel duty.
The group said a rise that hits voters who backed the Tories for the first time in December’s election would ‘send the wrong message’.
‘Any decision to scrap the fuel duty freeze must be seen for what it is: a tax rise which would hit our blue collar communities hardest,’ they said.
‘If the decision was taken to raise taxes on fuel, hard-working people and businesses in blue collar communities – many of which lent us their support at the general election for the first time in generations – will suffer.
‘Clobbering these communities with a tax rise in our first Budget would send the wrong message.’
The MPs warned that ‘hard-working people in these areas rely on their vehicles to get on in their everyday lives and to provide for their families’.
They added: ‘The Conservative Party should be supporting these people, not setting them back.’