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Tory tax threat to UK flights
Last updated at 11:22am on 13.01.07
Tory has plans to tax domestic flights out of existence
Domestic air passengers could face soaring ticket prices under Tory proposals to tackle climate change.
A senior Conservative MP said flights within the UK are no longer justified and should be taxed almost out of existence.
• Airport chaos over flight tax rise
Tim Yeo, who chairs the influential House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, said he wanted to see ' virtually no' internal flights within a decade because of the greenhouse gas emissions they produce.
Environmental campaigner and Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith, who is heading a group developing green policy for David Cameron, confirmed a tax hike on domestic flights was being considered.
The plans appeared to put the Tories at odds with Tony Blair, who defended the right of consumers to use cheap flights earlier this week. He said efforts should focus on new technology rather than forcing people to stay at home.
They will also enrage the airline industry, which is fiercely opposed to green taxes on its services. Gordon Brown recently doubled air passenger duty to £10 for short-haul flights and £80 for long-haul.
Mr Yeo, however, accused the Government of being 'pretty timid' over aviation taxation. He said he travelled to Scotland by train 'as a matter of conscience' and insisted there was 'no reason at all why people should fly around the UK'.
'Those flights should be knocked out,' he told GMTV in an interview to be broadcast on the Sunday Programme tomorrow. 'What we should do is tax domestic flights so heavily and use the money to improve the railways so that in five years' time everyone is choosing to go by train within the UK.
'That would make a big step in the right direction. The long-haul flights are harder to tackle, but the domestic flights we can be taking action on right now and we should be. I honestly do believe that within ten years there should be virtually no domestic flights.'
However, Mr Yeo was immediately accused of hypocrisy last night. It emerged that the MP recently made an 'epic' golfing journey for a regular newspaper column, in which he was whisked by private jet between three courses in England and Scotland in a single day.
He also accepted free flights to California, Cuba and Singapore for meetings and conferences last year, according to the register of MPs' interests.
Reader views (10)
Does this mean David Cameron and Greg Barker won't fly to the Arctic to publicise the effect of global warming?
- Tracy Martin, East Sussex
I have been loyal to the conservative part since I was old enough to vote.
I have suffered the Labour Party and its tax ragime in the hope that when the Conservatives are restored to power we might see the end of these covert ways of raising money in order for the exchequer to balance the budget. Please don't give us the green issue, it really is getting a bit thin.
- Stanley Tasker, Minehead
If the tory's think this is going to win them votes then think again.
Every politician is cashing in using global warming as an excuse to raise money for their own behalf and not the public, another con!!
It's about time labour got a grip and dealt with real problems like the council tax, the biggest rip off so far, what are they doing with all the billions of council tax money? pensioners shouldn't have to pay any council tax, the labour is starving innocent people of their savings.
- Graham Lacey, Peterhead Scotland
I think it is a bit rich comming from politicians of all parties that enthuse about market forces and choice whether it is about health or education but apparantly not travel. If we are all so green minded and it could be proved that aircraft travel actually does pollute as much as it is claimed it is up to the travelling public to not fly and there will be no domestic flights remember the airlines only provide the service because there is a market for it and in doing so and in accordance with the market forces philosophy do it an affordable rate.It yet again shows the intellectual void in politicians words and actions and then they wonder why nobody votes. How can you vote for people that show such a lack of intelligence and consistency
- Erwin Chwistek, Tetbury
This tax will mean that my visits to my family in Ireland 3 or 4 times a year will now cost even more. So I will now go by sea. What a way to run a country. Penalize people taking their leisure time were they want, abroad or in the UK and by what is supposed to be a moden way to travel,
- Tony Clark, London
Taxing internal flights wthin in the UK is very sensible. This is where there is a train or bus alternative. This should also apply to destinations such as Paris and Brussels with the Eurostar alternative. Taxing routes to Australia make no sense, a their is no viable alternative. It also makes the UK less competive as aircraft will fill up foreign fuel and fly to airports like Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. Tim Yeo is right on Domestic Flights tax and fuel tax. Ideally the UK would benefit with fast modern tilt trains on main lines which have 2 extra carriages. What happened before cheap environmentally damaging flights to Scotland. Essential business trips will have to pay extra in the UK, if they take the less environmental choice.
- Dave Olivier, Norwich
It is alright for Tim Yeo to say he takes the train to Scotland. He will travel first class and claim the fare back. He will not be herded into a carriage or have to stand in a crowded corridor and he will probably have the carraige to himself.
- Alan, Hyde, England
This is sheer lunacy or better still a moronic statement from soemone who loves to court the press. The amount of business travel that requires flying either domestically or long haul, is growing day by day. I personally have travelled extensively in Asia on business since the start of January and will continue to do so. However, rising taxes have to be paid somewhere along the line by the end customer, thus our costs increase and so do our selling prices. This is a great way of driving British business down the pan. I thought that it was the reserve of the labour government to ruin this country now it seems that the Tories want to do the same.
This is yet another Tim Yeo blunder.
This do as I say not as I do mentality is totally pathetic. Wake up Yeo or you may not get into government come the election.
- Richard Lawrance, Pulborough, UK
It's easy for the likes of Tim Yeo to preach about taking the train but we can't all afford either the fare or the time it takes to travel the length of Britain before we go on holiday from London airports. Cheap flights from Scottish airports are an absolute essential, not just to give us in Scotland the same opportunities for holidays that those in the south have but also for the benefit of tourists travelling up here from England or from connecting flights from overseas. Tourism is the major earner, particularly for the Highlands and "knocking out" these flights would seriously affect our livelihoods. As for his hypocrisy in suggesting this when he use free overseas flights and private jet trips between golf courses for himself, it just goes back to the old Tory attitude of one law for the rich and another for the poor.
- Jacqi Elmslie, Inverness, Scotland
Brown started this ball rolling, didn't he? Though, unlike Mister Stealth Tax, the Tories will most likely offer a quid pro quo carrot to sweeten the medicine.
- Ted, Shetland
