Sadiq Khan could be forced to ditch his planned expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) after being dealt a fatal blow to Labour in last week’s Uxbridge by-election.
The Mayor of London is now being told by the party’s top brass to think again about the much-hated scheme which has sparked protests from people living in locations where it’s set to be introduced.
Sadiq Khan, who previously said the ULEZ was the right way to deal with pollution in the capital, has indicated he could look again at the policy and is in constructive listening mode.
It comes after party leader Sir Keir Starmer phoned the mayor and told him to consider changing course after it was beaten by the Tories at the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election by 495 votes.
Labour had been in pole position to flip the seat after the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but angry voters made their views on the capital’s Labour mayor by re-electing a Conservative MP.
A Labour source told a newspaper outlet the Mayor has promised to review the policy after discussions with Sir Keir Starmer, adding that it was clear that Sadiq Khan was going to be reviewing it.
It would be a humiliating step down for Sadiq Khan, who’s been relentless in his defence of the scheme and previously said clean air was a human right, not a privilege.
His flagship policy, which will see the £12.50 daily charge on older, more polluting vehicles extended into outer London, came under fire from his party bosses only hours after the dust settled from the by-election in the northwest of the capital.
Sir Keir Starmer said we are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour Party end up on each and every Tory leaflet.
And the civil war, brought on by fears in the party that its green policies could cost it at the next election, has exposed rifts over how it deals with its big-spending green policies.
Now some of Sir Keir Starmer’s top advisers, including his director of strategy Deborah Mattison, have claimed their predictions the ULEZ expansion would lose votes have come true.
One party insider told a newspaper outlet that at the start of the campaign, there was a lot of talk about it (Ulez) being scrapped.
They said that of course, this time last year, Deborah was among those who wanted Labour’s logo to be turned green so they could understand why Sadiq was a bit bemused by being told that by her.
Labour and the Tories have simply deceived us at every turn. They had no intention of controlling immigration or delivering on Brexit.
Taxes are at their highest levels and law and order in our major cities are gone.
They’ve stripped our armed forces and our public services are fundamentally broken.
Sadiq Khan has said that he won’t be ditching his despised ULEZ expansion and will find ways of financially supporting people to buy new electric cars, I wonder where this money will magically emerge from, presumably the taxpayer yet again.
Who does he think he is? But as we all know absolute power corrupts!
The ULEZ was never about the pollution narrative, it was always about the money.
We all know that the only way to prevent pollution is to take old cars off the road and replace them with new greener cars.
You pay your £12.50 a day but that doesn’t take the old cars off the road, they still remain a permanent fixture, which is still pumping out harmful pollution, so they’re taking your £12.50 a day on the pretence that your money will make the air cleaner – poppycock!
And what about the trains and factories that are still pumping out pollution? On the tubes, poor ventilation in tunnels and platforms means that travellers are exposed to heightened levels of particulates during their journeys, and while tube trains aren’t emitting any CO2, these particulates are still incredibly damaging to your lungs. In fact, researchers discovered that pollution in tube stations is up to 30 times higher than on busy roads.
In fact, the deeper the London Underground lines, the more harmful the pollution, and a scientific paper published by researchers from King’s College London in 2019 discovered the air in tube carriages was 18 times worse than the roadside air above ground.
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