Pump prices have been rising in recent months and the average petrol price has now reached 148.02p a litre, breaching the previous high of 147.72 recorded in November 2021.

Diesel has also jumped to 151.57p a litre, passing the previous high of 151.10p a litre set in November.

Luke Bosdet, the AA’s fuel price spokesman, said: “The cost of living crisis has been ratcheted up yet another notch, tightening the vice on family spending when it faces other pressures from impending domestic energy cost and tax increases.”

According to the RAC, filling up a 55-litre family car now costs an eye-watering £81.41.

Simon Williams of the RAC, said: “With the oil price teetering on the brink of $100 a barrel and retailers keen to pass on the increase in wholesale fuel quickly, new records could now be set on a daily basis in the coming weeks.

“The oil price is rising due to tensions between Russia – the world’s third biggest oil producer – and Ukraine, along with oil production remaining out of kilter with demand as the world emerges from the pandemic. As a result drivers in the UK could be in for an even worse ride as pump prices look certain to go up even more.”

However, he added that on a positive note, retailer margins which were the reason drivers paid overly high prices in December and January – have now returned to more normal levels of around 7p a litre.

“We urge the big four supermarkets, which dominate fuel sales, to play fair with drivers and not to make a bad situation on the forecourt any worse by upping their margins again,” Williams said.