An anti-Ulez protester says he will starve himself for seven days in a bid to get Sadiq Khan to “listen to the people” and reverse his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone.
Prabhdeep Singh, 41, who previously worked in the British army in the dental corp, has set up camp outside Uxbridge station to protest the scheme, saying it wasn’t the job of the Mayor of London to “dictate” his terms on Londoners.
It comes as London prepares for the city-wide, £12.50 daily charge for owners whose vehicles do not meet exhaust emissions requirements from August 29.
Speaking from his tent in the town centre, he told the Standard: “It is Day 2. I’m feeling ok I’m surviving. When you are morally right the hunger doesn’t bother you. I’m fighting for the cause.
“This country is a democratic country. People’s lives should be the priority and thousands have signed petitions against it.
“They are just trying to police us as badly as they can and we have to fight back.”
He said he had garnered many messages of support from Uxbridge locals who narrowly voted Tory in a by-election following the resignation of Boris Johnson with Ulez proving the dividing issue.
Mr Singh said: “I had one woman come to me and say her father can no longer drive for his weekly visit to the grave of her dead mother. It’s tearing families apart. People are emotionally affected and it’s discrimination against people who can’t afford it.”
Mr Singh, who lives in Reading and drives a 2015 plate Vauxhall Insignia as a taxi, said he cannot afford to drop-offs in Heathrow and will have to pay £18,000 for a used Ulez compliant car.
He added: “Clean air is a natural right, we don’t deny it. But solving one problem by creating hundreds more is not the way.”
A man has gone on a hunger strike against ULEZ in Uxbridge, West London today. Ex-British Army officer Prabhdeep Singh plans to overturn the ULEZ ruling by not eating pic.twitter.com/du4bpf3RGl
— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) August 7, 2023
Police have been in to check the protest but the cab driver said he was allowed to continue as they could see “no-one’s being harmed.”
Mr Singh attracted attention by going on hunger strike to campaign against the cost of living crisis last year. He said he is on phase two of campaign as Ulez is merely an added tax burden for “working people”.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan insisted he was pressing ahead with the controversial expansion as he announced a major widening of a vehicle scrappage scheme.
City Hall is set to add a further £50 million from reserves to a £110 million fund to help drivers upgrade their cars, vans and motorbikes.
Hundreds of doctors urged politicians to toughen their stance on plans to tackle toxic air, saying they witness the “devastating health consequences” of pollution every day in the consulting room.
Pollution represents Britain’s biggest risk to public health from environmental factors, which is linked to up to 36,000 national deaths annually.
Mr Khan’s Conservative opponent in next year’s mayoral race, Susan Hall, says she’ll “stop the Ulez expansion on day one” if elected.
