Grant Shapps’ bike licence plates proposal ‘a strange and pointless idea’

Cyclists take to the road in central London. Shapps has been accused of ‘playing to a tabloid audience’ in his remarks about cyclists. Photograph: Scott Hortop Travel/Alamy

Transport groups and opposition parties have reacted with bafflement to a proposal by Grant Shapps to look at mandatory insurance and registration for cyclists, something previously rejected by the Department for Transport (DfT) as impractical and counter-productive.

In an interview with the Daily Mail that appeared to surprise his own officials, the transport secretary said he “absolutely” wanted to extend speed limits to cyclists, adding: “I see no reason why cyclists should break the road laws and be able to get away with it.”