The Welsh Liberal Democrats have this week called on the UK Government to extend the Rural Fuel Duty Relief scheme to rural parts of Wales, after highlighting that rural Welsh communities were explicitly excluded from the scheme when it was designed by the Conservatives.

Speaking in a debate in Parliament, Welsh Lib Dem Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP criticised the way the scheme was set up, which currently applies to areas across rural England and rural Scotland, but excludes every part of rural Wales.

Mr Chadwick said: “People in rural Wales are being clobbered by sky-high fuel costs, yet they were deliberately excluded from a scheme designed to help rural drivers elsewhere in the UK.

“That is fundamentally unfair.”