Politics

Rishi Sunak's petrol station photo op got mercilessly roasted

Rishi Sunak's petrol station photo op got mercilessly roasted
'Is that it?': Heckler shouts at Rishi Sunak after Spring statement in ...
Independent

Rishi Sunak has seized another photo op and people aren't happy about it.

After delivering the Spring Statement, in which he cut fuel duty and raised the national insurance threshold, among other policy changes, the chancellor celebrated by posting a photo of himself filling 'his' car with petrol at a supermarket in a suit complete with a microphone attached to his tie.

"It's 6pm - the biggest cut to all fuel duty rates ever has just come into effect," he said, which is sort of true...

Sunak cut the fuel duty by 5p to deal with rising inflation and petrol prices. However, this will take time to come into effect as retailers will have to sell off their existing fuel which was purchased before the duty was cut. Meanwhile, the price of petrol has increased due in part to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so 5p might not be that helpful.

“We’re pleased to see the Chancellor has given drivers some much-needed relief at the pumps, but the reality is that a 5p cut in duty is something of a drop in the ocean,” said RAC spokesman Nicholas Lyes. “In reality, reducing it by 5p will only take prices back to where they were just over a week ago.”

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Aside from that, the threshold in which people start paying national insurance has been increased by £3000 to £12,570 and Sunak has dangled the prospect of cutting basic rate income tax by 1p in 2024.

With that in mind, people simply didn't believe Sunak's photo was authentic and that he nips to Sainsbury's in his car on the regs to get petrol.




And don't get us started on the footage from inside the petrol station:

You would have thought he might have thought twice after the photo op he did before the Spring Statement...

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)
x