According to the latest AA Fuel Price Report, the UK average pump price for petrol has risen 3.06p a litre between mid-November and mid-December, a quarter of that over one weekend.

Diesel prices are also up across the country and now average 126.19p a litre; an increase of 3.12p on a month ago. 

Compared to this time last year, the cost of filling a typical 50-litre petrol tank has risen from £54.26, when petrol cost 108.51p a litre, to £61.07 now. The cost of filling up with diesel has risen from £54.93, when a litre cost 109.85, to £63.10 now.

'This is a bleak mid winter for millions of drivers. Milking motorists through higher fuel prices is over, as many are running dry and biting back – not because they want to, but because they have no option. Two thirds of drivers are cutting back on journeys, cutting back on other expenditure, or cutting back on both,' said Edmund King, the AA's president.

UK petrol car owners are spending £8 million a day more on fuel than a year ago and as market speculation looks for an increase to $100, prices are set to rise further, not helped by the forthcoming rises in VAT and fuel duty.

According to the AA, on current prices, the 2.5% increase in VAT and the 0.76p-a-litre increase in fuel duty due at the start of the New Year will add around 3.5p to the pump price of petrol and diesel.

Mr King added: 'It is the lower-income drivers who suffer first and hardest, and that is why the Government should not add further to their misery by increasing both duty and VAT on fuel in the New Year.'

As a result, the AA is calling on the Government to abandon January's fuel duty increase and to scrap the inflation + 1p a litre formula for fuel duty increases whilst global prices are so high.