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Howell maiden
speech: We won U-turn on fuel duty rise
In his maiden speech
to the House of Commons on Wednesday 16 July, the newly elected
MP for Henley, John Howell, said that the people of South
Oxfordshire deserved the credit for forcing the Prime Minister
to do a u-turn and axe the promised rise of 2p in fuel duty this
autumn.
The Prime
Minister had earlier confirmed that the 2p rise would not now
take place.
John Howell
said:
“I think that my
constituents would feel that they had a role to play in this.
They regarded the by-election as, in many ways, a referendum on
the Government’s whole approach to the motorist and will be glad
to have forced the Government into this climbdown.”
In his speech he
praised his predecessor Boris Johnson.
He said:
“Boris’s ability
to make politics and life fun are undeniable, but they should
not obscure a man of great intellect and ability who will be
much missed in the constituency and will be a hard act to
follow.”
He went on to express
concern for the way that life in the constituency was being
threatened by the steady erosion of local services such as post
office closures and high petrol prices which could lead to rural
isolation. He made a specific promise to the service personnel
and their families at RAF Benson that he would hold the
Government to account on delivering the fair deal that they
deserved. |
