Truckers gearing up to mount new petrol protests over fuel prices

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In a dramatic face-to-face confrontation, Bernard Howard told the Prime Minister his Government was a 'fiasco' and accused him of neglecting the farming and haulage industries.

Mr Howard, a delegate at the CBI conference in London, told Mr Brown Chancellor Alistair Darling should resign for serial 'incompetence'.

The 70-year- old pig farmer warned of a new wave of militancy among lorry firms as diesel costs soar.

The Premier smiled uneasily as Mr Howard asked: "Are you aware, Prime Minister, that the road hauliers are gathered together to go out in the country and show their muscle?

"The meetings are taking place all this week. The strength of the road hauliers is on the march."

Mr Howard said high fuel prices were a 'disaster' for the country and cited other calamities including the loss of computer discs containing the details of 25million child benefit claimants.

He said that a business run in the same way as HM Revenue and Customs would be facing bankruptcy.

Mr Darling, he added, should resign over the lost discs and for failing to support the agriculture and haulage industries.

Mr Howard and his three brothers built up his farm near Stamford, Lincolnshire, into a thriving pig-breeding business.

But they closed it down two years ago after running up annual losses of £100,000.

"I blame this totally on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown," said the Tory local councillor.

"They have bankrupted the farming industry and two-thirds of British farmers have gone under.

"All the supermarkets have gone abroad for cheap and non-audited meat which has led to the virtual collapse of British meat farming.

"Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are totally un-British - they are failing Great Britain Limited."

The haulage area of his business, which is run by one of his nephews, has also been affected, Mr Howard added.

He demanded the Treasury act to bring down diesel and petrol prices.

A Downing Street spokesman insisted that in real terms fuel duty was 11 per cent lower than in 1999.