London mayor Sadiq Khan has refused to say whether the unpopularity of his Ulez charges could cost Labour the next general election.
Mr Khan was defiant about today’s expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) to outer London – arguing that the £12.50 daily fee for high polluting drivers was “difficult but “vital”.
The Labour mayor also clashed with transport secretary Mark Harper – accusing the Tory minister of spreading “factual errors” of the scheme aimed at cutting air pollution.
The Tories continue to hammer Mr Khan and Labour on the introduction of the scheme, widely reckoned to have cost Labour the recent byelection in Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge.
Asked on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he had thought about it costing Labour the general election, Mr Khan did not answer, saying only that “Londoners want to see cleaner air in our city.”
He added: “It was a difficult decision. I accept Ulez was a factor in Uxbridge and Ruislip, [but] there was a lot of misinformation in relation to that seat … I’ll carry on listening to Londoners to ameliorate any concerns.”
On Tuesday, London became the world’s largest pollution charging area after Ulez was expanded to include the whole of the capital. People who drive in the zone in a vehicle that does not meet minimum emissions standards are now required to pay a £12.50 daily fee or risk a £180 fine.
Mr Khan has faced strong opposition to the scheme, although a £160m scheme run by Transport for London (TfL) enables residents, small businesses, sole traders and charities scrapping non-compliant cars to claim grants.
Stanley Johnson has warned has warned Rishi Sunak that opposing Ulez is a “betrayal” and is not going to help the party win the next general election. “I think the Tories are seriously barking up the wrong tree if they think that attacking ULEZ is going to be the secret to success of the next election,” Boris Johnson’s father told GB News.
Sadiq Khan is under pressure over the Ulez expansion— (PA Wire)
“It would be really, really crazy for the Conservatives to say, ‘Okay for electoral gain we are going to dump quite a lot of our environmental policies, including this’,” he said, adding that the Tories “will be betraying themselves, betraying their own environmental record if they dump it”.
Mr Harper accused the Labour mayor of a cash grab. “It’s not about air pollution, it’s about a money-raising exercise,” he told GB News. “And this is absolutely not the time to be putting all those costs on hard-pressed and hard-working Londoners and those in the area outside London.”
Asked if he would put an end to the expansion if he had the power to do so, Mr Harper said: “Yes, I don’t have the power, though.”
Rejecting some of Mr Harper’s claims, Mr Khan told BBC Breakfast: “I just bumped into Mark Harper as he was leaving the studio and I think he made a couple of factual errors.”
He added: “If this was about making money, I’d have acceded to the demand from the government to expand the congestion charge much wider than it currently is. That would have been a cash grab, but I said ‘No’.”
“If it was a cash grab – as the government is saying – just to raise money, I’d have acceded to their demand to expand the Ulez without proper consultation and a proper scrappage scheme. This is about helping our air be cleaner.”
August’s Ulez expansion has seen angry protests— (PA)
Speaking on Times Radio, the Labour mayor also ruled out a pay-per-mile scheme while he is in office, adding: “It’s not on the agenda, it’s not on the table.”
Mr Khan did say that it was “no secret that the government, transport officials in London and around the country, have been looking at for some time, in relation to a smarter, streamlined service for a variety of reasons”.
He added: “In fact, Boris Johnson, when he was the mayor of London – remember him? – in his transport strategy there was talk about a pay-per-mile scheme. When Rishi Sunak was chancellor he asked his Treasury officials to look into these schemes. There’s no secrecy around this.”
Keir Starmer and London mayor Sadiq Khan at odds over Ulez— (PA)
Mr Khan is at odds with Sir Keir Starmer over Ulez, and the Labour leader backtracked on support and urged the mayor to “reflect” on its expansion. On Monday frontbencher Justin Madders urged Mr Khan to “listen” to cost of living concerns, saying it was an “expense too many” for drivers.
But Rishi Sunak hit out at both Sir Keir and Mr Khan on Tuesday, saying the scheme was going to hit working families”. The PM added: “I don’t think that’s the right priority, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do and I wish they hadn’t done it.”
Mr Harper explained on LBC’s Nick Ferrari programme that the government will be backing an amendment to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill to make changes to the 1999 law in a bid to prevent road charging.
Under the amendment, brought forward by Tory peer Lord Moylan, London boroughs would be able to opt out of future Transport for London (TfL) clean air schemes if they are meeting air quality targets.
The transport secretary said: “We are backing an amendment, a backbench amendment to a piece of legislation which will mean in future any road user charging schemes like this would have to be also backed by London boroughs.”
“And that’s important because if you look at the mayor of London’s own website for his Project 2030 scheme, he wants to roll out more road user charging schemes, pay-per-mile schemes across London.”
