Rachel Reeves confirms bus fare cap WILL rise to £3 after MPs slammed ‘betrayal of working people’
BUS passengers will fork out up to 50 per cent more for journeys as plans to scrap the £2 fare cap were confirmed in the Budget.
The Chancellor used her Budget to say fares will jump to a new £3 limit, hitting people in the pocket just before Christmas.
The existing cap, introduced under the previous Tory government to help with the cost of living, has kept fares down for millions of passengers.
Rachel Reeves said: “While the previous government’s policy was for the bus fare cap to end this December, we understand how important bus services are for our communities.
“So we will extend the cap for a further year, setting it at £3 until December 2025.”
The PM had already announced the cap would be ditched earlier this week.
He stressed the cash for the £2 limit was going to dry up by the end of 2024.
WATCH RACHEL REEVES ON NEVER MIND THE BALLOTS
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
RACHEL Reeves will be grilled in a special Budget edition of The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots show today.
Our Political Editor Harry Cole will put the Chancellor on the spot shortly after she’s finished delivering her crucial address in the House of Commons.
It will be available to watch on thesun.co.uk, YouTube and Sun social channels at 5.30pm.
Topics will include her decision on whether to spare motorists a fuel duty rise, and the expected eye-watering tax rises she will impose.
Since its launch earlier this year, NMTB has cemented its place at the heart of British politics.
During the General Election campaign The Sun was the only print publisher to host back-to-back grillings of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.
Footage from The Election Showdown has been viewed over 15 million times.
NMTB has also featured interviews with ex-PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as senior politicians Nigel Farage, James Cleverly, Wes Streeting, Steve Reed and Bridget Phillipson
He told an audience in Birmingham: “On the £2 bus fare, first thing to say is the Tories only funded that until the end of 2024 and therefore that is the end of the funding in relation to a £2 capped fare.
“I do know how much this matters, particularly in rural communities where there’s heavy reliance on buses.
“And that’s why I’m able to say to you this morning that in the Budget we will announce there will be a £3 cap on busfares to the end of 2025 because I know how important it is.”
A Government source said keeping fares capped was “hard fought for in the Budget” but that Department for Transport analysis found the £2 cap “unsustainable for taxpayers” and offering “poor value for money.”
Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick blasted the move, saying: “Starmer must think people who get the bus aren’t working people. Clueless.”
And Lib Dems branded the change “a bus tax” and described bus services as “the backbone of economic activity in communities across our country”.