Transport Spokesman Mark McArthur-Christie said

"Each driver in the UK is already paying around £1,500 a year in taxes to sit in traffic jams, on poorly maintained roads and with few alternatives - this threatened tax hike just increases the burden to an untenable level; the government seems to have already forgotten the fuel protests of 2002."

The ABD argues that drivers of larger cars are already penalised through the UK's high levels of fuel duty - the highest in Europe. To increase Vehicle Excise Duty still further would simply tax poorer drivers who often have to run older, larger cars because they are cheaper than newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
 
The ABD's Chairman, Brian Gregory commented

"Gordon Brown knows he can't hike the 85% tax take from petrol much further, so now he's looking for other stealth taxes with which to hit drivers. It's time he realised - with an election only a couple of years away - that the UK's 36 million drivers are also voters."