Treasury Fuelled by £32m from Panic Buying

At least someone benefited from last week's panic buy fuel frenzy as the Treasury is expected to have made £32m in a single day from worried drivers.

The incredible figure was calculated by the AA who, compared to last year’s figures, noticed an 81% rise petrol sales and 43% increase in diesel. In total the breakdown specialists report that an extra 56.6m litres of fuel were sold on the Thursday fuel rush last week.

With over half a penny (0.57) spent on fuel going in the Treasury’s coffers, the windfall bonus is more than £32m.

An AA spokesman said: ‘It is extra money, based on last year’s statistics but it isn’t the pot that keeps on giving and some of those who have stocked up now are relatively infrequent drivers, so are likely to not top-up again for months.’

The panic-buying was largely as a consequence of the ill-thought advice dished out to drivers by cabinet office minister Francis Maude, who recommended the public should take on extra fuel in case of a possible strike by fuel tanker drivers.