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MPs push for green car-tax drive

MPs have demanded the government push ahead with plans to tax gas-guzzling cars, saying current plans are too timid.

The environmental audit commission dubs plans to increase vehicle excise duty for the worst polluting cars a "step in the right direction".

Its Conservative chairman Tim Yeo wants the government to signal greater changes than those currently on the table.

But the findings have proved divisive in Westminster, with a group of committee members releasing their own minority report.

Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson said the ideas amounted to 'retrospective taxation' – a "new tax an old cars".

"The public must have faith that green taxes are not about raising revenue for the Treasury, but in this case, their use is clearly more to do with filling Alistair Darling's coffers than cutting carbon emissions from our roads," Ms Swinson claimed.