The Daily Express has been leading a crusade to persuade retailers to pass on the recent big falls in the price of oil to customers.

Lorry drivers also called yesterday for prices to be cut. Roger King, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said: “The haulage sector still is extremely angry that we are paying so much more for diesel than petrol.

“We would like to see diesel come down by 10 pence a litre.”

BP’s July to September profits leapt 148 per cent compared with the same period last year, prompting claims of “obscene profiteering” from the Unite union.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary, said: “Strug­gling, worried families will have every right to feel angry.”

Crude oil surged above 147 dollars a barrel in mid-July, pushing UK pump prices to a record high.

And BP chief executive Tony Hayward enraged drivers by admitting: “Al­though it has since fallen away sharply, the high oil price of the third quarter obviously helped our result.”

The firm’s oil was selling for an average of 111 dollars a barrel between July and Sept­ember, more than double its price the same time last year.

Its cheapest pump prices yesterday were 95.9p a litre for unleaded and 108.9p for diesel.

Those are higher than the cheapest supermarket fuel at 94.9p for unleaded and 106.9p for diesel.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: “BP have absolutely no excuse for not passing on any fuel price falls to customers. It would be a scandal if they do not.”

Liberal Democrat energy spokesman Steve Webb said: “These huge profits will be a bitter pill to swallow for families struggling with rising fuel bills.”

And Gordon Brown urged gas, electricity and petrol firms to pass on falling wholesale costs to households.

BP says it makes very little profit on UK petrol sales, with the bulk of its global income coming from crude oil sales.

BP last night said its UK  including petrol sales, lost £91million between July and September.

Industry body Oil and Gas UK hit back at calls for a windfall tax on profits.

Chief executive Malcolm Webb said: “With tax rates of 50 to 75 per cent, the Government is already the single biggest beneficiary from the UK’s North Sea oil industry. Calls for a windfall tax are thoroughly misguided.”

But around the country drivers voiced their fury.

Jennifer Arnold, a 33-year-old nurse from Swindon, said: “While I have been struggling, BP has been raking it in.”

Martin Robinson, 44, a teacher from Harlow, said: “These profits are obscene.”

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