David Cameron has said a future Conservative government would scrap planned increases in car taxes but a decision on whether to ditch plans for an increase in petrol duty should wait until later on this year.

He was responding to a question posed to him by Kent Online reader David Merrall, who took up our offer to submit questions to the party leader during his visit to the county on Tuesday.

Mr Merrall, a draughtsman from Gillingham, wanted to know what Mr Cameron would do if he was in power now to address the rising costs of both fuel and food, as the two were linked.

Mr Cameron, who was interviewed by the Kent Messenger Group’s political editor Paul Francis, said: "The first thing we can do is stop making it worse. The Government’s plans for new car taxes next year - we don’t agree with that. We want them to be scrapped. The next thing is - don’t use all of the revenue that comes into the Treasury for spending, use some of it to cut taxes, so over time we will be able to reduce taxes and the cost of living."

Asked about the plans to impose an extra two pence on fuel duty in October, he said:

"The time for making that decision is not right now, but with prices at this level the Government has got to show some understanding of the pain people are going through every time they fill up their car."

On food prices, he was cautious about what any government could achieve.

"What we can’t do is set a price for food in the shops. We should encourage farmers to produce more, to have more farmers’ markets, and make sure if there are monopolies operating or supermarkets operating restricitve practices, we should bust those open. But you cannot have price controls. So we have to be clear with people about what we can do and what we can’t do."

Mr Cameron also spelled out his party’s plans for a Brit disc to help hard-pressed HGV drivers. "We need to help hauliers. In Kent, there will be many small hauliers that simply now cannot make a decent living because of the price of fuel. We have said it is time to look at a road user charge that is paid by all hauliers but you get a rebate when you buy fuel at British service stations."