British motorist is becoming used to being this Government's whipping boy. Our latest revelations about price-fixing at the pumps show that the car-owning public are being taken for mugs by the Treasury.

Four-star petrol is gradually being replaced by lead replacement petrol, or LRP. This is good news for the environment because it contains no lead and is less harmful to the atmosphere.

It should also have been good news for the motorist. Ministers from this administration and the last taxed four star more heavily to encourage people to switch to greener unleaded petrol. The price of four star has been kept artificially high for the best of reasons.

Now the fuel is being replaced by a lead-free alternative. It is as green as unleaded and so should be taxed the same. That would see the cost of four star's replacement drop significantly.

And yet our survey of prices on the forecourt shows that there remains a big difference. A litre of LRP costs the same as four star, around 79.9p per litre, compared to unleaded which is seven pence a litre cheaper.

Some of the extra expense can be laid at the door of the oil industry. It says LRP is more expensive because of the research and development costs.

At a time when it is under fire for overcharging, the industry might have felt it more prudent to swallow these costs from their profits.

But the main culprit is the Chancellor. Gordon Brown justifies charging two pence more per litre in tax for LRP because the older cars that use it tend to be the biggest polluters.

This flimsy excuse is not enough to deflect attention from the Government's attempt to maintain its tax revenue through stealth. If LRP is still such a big polluter, then why has it been developed in the first place?

The Chancellor should remember that most of the people who will buy LRP drive older cars because they are on lower incomes. By taxing four star's replacement so heavily he is hitting the poorest drivers the hardest.

New Labour has made much of its campaign to tackle "rip-off Britain". One of the most obvious examples of this trend is petrol prices. We already pay far more for fuel than American and continental drivers.

Now the Government is making the situation worse.

Far from ending rip-off Britain, New Labour has chosen to actively exploit the hard-pressed British motorist.

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