Rishi Sunak has been urged to scrap the ban on new petrol and diesel cars scheduled for 2030 after his party’s by-election win in Uxbridge last week was put down to opposition to the ULEZ expansion.
The success, in the face of two significant losses in other by-elections for the Conservatives, followed a campaign opposing London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans.
Craig Mackinlay, the Tory chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, told The Telegraph: “We need to get the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars overturned at least until 2035, which is where most of the developed world is going. It is pre madness to saddle ourselves with this deadline.
The paper adds that Lord Frost, Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiator, wrote on Twitter: “The lesson is surely that green policies are very unpopular when there’s a direct cost to people – as indeed all the polling says.
“This time that hit Labour. But soon it could be us unless we rethink heat pumps and the 2030 electric car deadline.”
It came as Sir John Redwood, a former head of the No 10 policy unit under Margaret Thatcher, asked: “Will Mayor Khan cancel Ulez now voters have told him how unpopular it is? After winning Uxbridge by speaking out against Ulez, will the Government now act to stop so many attacks on motorists?”
(Picture – Yay Images)
