A DORSET MP has backed calls for a ‘PumpWatch’ regulator to be created in a bid to tackle spiralling fuel prices.

Chris Loder (Con, West Dorset) has echoed an appeal from fellow MPs in a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, urging him to ensure this year’s spring budget makes provisions to address the ‘fuel price rip-off’.

Mr Loder says many motorists in the most rural communities are being short-changed due to higher fuel prices.

He wrote to the Chancellor this week, emphasising the need to appoint a regulator to oversee how fuel suppliers decide to charge their customers at the pumps.

“Since I raised this first with the Prime Minister in the House of Commons in November, we have been keeping the momentum going; with a review from the Competitions and Markets Authority and a written request to fuel retailers from the Secretary of State in December,” he said.

“I have requested that the Chancellor takes action to consolidate this progress with the launching of a proactive and effective regulator to ensure the rules of fairness are adhered to.”

The West Dorset MP has been campaigning for an overhaul of the mechanism by which fuel retailers decide to price their fuel at the pumps.

On November 9 last year, Mr Loder asked the Prime Minister for action to clamp down on the ‘predatory’ nature of some supermarket fuel retailers, charging rural towns such as Bridport as much as 20p per litre more than other stores further away.