Driving back home from London to north Essex on Sunday night via the old A11 – because the M11 was closed – I passed more petrol stations than usual and was staggered by the huge discrepancies in fuel prices.

Several forecourts were selling petrol at 165p a litre, others had the price at 169p while diesel on some forecourts was as high as 173p a litre. For petrol cars, filling a 50-litre tank now costs around £82 while for diesel the cost of a tank is nearly £90. 

It’s a mind-boggling figure, especially if you work out how many hours someone on the minimum wage – around ÂŁ9.18 an hour – must earn to pay to fill their tank to get to work. 

At some petrol stations, drivers are reporting that prices are changing by the hour and, according to Experian Catalist, fuel is now at a record high, with the average cost of a litre of petrol on Sunday hitting 163.5p and diesel 173.4p.