- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday September 19 2000 03.34 BST
In interviews yesterday the chancellor, Gordon Brown, refused to back down on his hardline stance last week. He insisted he would not give in to short-term demands or return to the era of boom and bust.
However, Blairite cabinet ministers are determined to face the Treasury down and insist on a general cut in petrol duties. One said: "Rebates for road hauliers would only be tinkering at the edges. People feel a genuine grievance over the price of petrol and that needs to be addressed. The chancellor has made his views plain, but so will other ministers."
The minister said only a big fall in oil prices could prevent the government from making concessions on petrol duties. However, oil prices were continuing to rise last night to more than $34 a barrel.
An unexpected go-ahead for a freeze, or even cut, in petrol duties came from the environment minister, Michael Meacher, yesterday. He said the big rise in petrol duties had been environmentally necessary at a time of falling oil prices, but in the past 10 months the price of oil had risen from $10 to $34. He added that improvements in engine technology would be more than twice as effective in cutting carbon emissions than rises in petrol duty.
Downing Street is hoping to rebalance the political atmosphere with a string of high profile spending announcements at the Labour conference next week.
Mr Brown feels strongly that the rise in petrol duties were necessary to remove the budget deficit and store up the surpluses necessary to fund the big increases in spending on education and health.
However, Treasury officials have been in private talks with the Road Haulage Association since the Budget about plans for "an essential users' rebate" on petrol duties.
The RHA is due to meet the unofficial organisers of last week's "leaderless protest" tomorrow to discuss the next moves in their campaign.
