Rigged petrol prices will outrage voters far more than Europe ever could

Believe it or not, while voters might be unimpressed by the ferrets fighting in a sack over Tory Europe strategy, what will interest them far more is the possibility that they may have been paying over the odds for their petrol for a decade. Yesterday’s raids on BP, Shell, Platts and Statoil suggest that finally the allegations of whistleblowers that oil prices were being kept artificially high, reported on this blog, are being taken seriously by the European Commission. Britain is struggling under a cost of living crisis, and MPs will want to make their outrage about the possibility of price fixing as clear as they possibly can to their constituents.

But there will be others, like Robert Halfon, who wonder why on earth the Office of Fair Trading didn’t find an explanation for price rises of 80 per cent over the 11 years the companies are accused of inflating the prices.