British motorists are having to dig deep at the pump - and things could get much worse in the weeks ahead.

The price of petrol has just seen its biggest daily jump in 17 years, with a rise of more than 2p a litre.

The RAC said the average cost of filling a typical family car with petrol was now £99.40 and could exceed £100 as soon as today.

The typical price of petrol rose to 180.73p per litre on Tuesday.

The average price of diesel rose by almost 1.5p to another record high of 186.57p per litre - making the cost of filling a 55-litre family car £102.61.

A bad sign for drivers is that the price of oil is moving ahead again - and this rise will soon feed through to the pumps.

Brent futures were less than $70 a barrel in December, but surged to nearly $130 in March before dropping back to less than $100. However, they had climbed to just under $124 earlier today.

Prices have been driven by the war in Ukraine and moves to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian oil.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams told the BBC the accelerating costs of forecourt fuel was "unprecedented", adding it appeared prices were "still some way from the peak".

The RAC's fuel-watch data showed Asda had hiked its average petrol price by nearly 5p a litre in a single day, which he said was "unheard of".

In response, Asda said wholesale fuel prices had increased "at an unprecedented rate" and "we will do all we can to minimise the impact of rising wholesale prices on our customers".

Meanwhile, some forecourts are already selling petrol above £2 per litre, according to price comparison website PetrolPrices.

The highest price was found to be 202.9p at BP sites on the A1 near Sunderland, the M4 near Chippenham in Wiltshire and the M6 near Burton-in-Kendal, Cumbria.

In March, the UK Government announced a 5p per litre cut to fuel duty to help reduce costs for motorists.

However, motoring groups have raised concerns retailers are not passing on the cut to customers.

On Wednesday the prime minister's official spokesman said the Government was "not confident" this was happening at all petrol stations.

He said the Government was "continuing to look at all possible options" and "transparency may have an important role to play" in ensuring the cut is passed on.

It comes after a Government source told the BBC that a plan to name and shame petrol stations that fail to do so is "still in the works".

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