Could oil bring down Brown?

Have you noticed that petrol costs have hit the £1 a litre price again at service stations? The wholesale price of crude oil has doubled in the last few weeks and is now close to the $80 a barrel mark. Most analysts feel the price can only go up as demand picks up in China.

You can’t blame Brown for that. But Labour’s problem is that Alistair Darling’s two pence fuel levy increase, which was announced but not implemented at the last budget, comes into force in September. If the retail price continues to go up in the meantime, the introduction of the levy could just provoke another fuel protest.

Could this be the catalyst for the Labour rebel’s last chance to remove Brown?