Labour could expand use of London-style vehicle emissions tax

Labour’s Ulez Britain: Keir Starmer could roll out London-style vehicle emissions tax on cars, vans and lorries to more major cities if he wins the next election

Labour is under pressure to rule out expanding a Ulez-style emissions tax from London to other major cities in the UK if it wins the next election. 

A policy document drafted by Sir Keir Starmer’s party backs the idea of ‘clean air zones’ in major urban areas alongside expansion of public transport.

London mayor Sadiq Khan is facing a major fight over the Ultra-Low Emission Zones scheme, which sees the worse-polluting vehicles hit with a £12.50 daily charge. 

It currently only applies to cars, vans and lorries entering central London, but from August will be expanded to include all London boroughs.

Greg Hands, the Conservative Party chairman and MP for Chelsea and Fulham, told the Telegraph: ‘Khan’s cash-grab Ulez expansion is hugely unpopular here in London. Labour need to rule out these unpopular moves on hard-working residents of our great cities.’

London mayor Sadiq Khan is facing a major fight over the Ultra-Low Emission Zones scheme, which sees the worse-polluting vehicles hit with a £12.50 daily charge.

A policy document drafted by Sir Keir Starmer’s party backs the idea of ‘clean air zones’ in major urban areas alongside expansion of public transport.

The document, first reported by the Labour List website, recommends Labour ‘support the principle of Clean Air Zones’, but adds that they must be ‘phased in carefully…and should be accompanied with a just transition plan’.

They are already in place in Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Greater Manchester, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside.

Tory candidates to run against Mr Khan in next year’s London mayoral election have pledged to scrap the Ulez extension to outer boroughs.

But Sir Keir last week backed the expansion, saying Londoners risk getting lung cancer without it.

He admitted it was ‘a lot of money’ for vehicle owners to pay.

Asked on LBC Radio whether he was fully behind Mr Khan’s expansion of London’s ULEZ, the Labour leader admitted: ‘There’s many people who will look at the scheme and say “that’s a lot of money for me to pay”.’

But Sir Keir went on to recount his visit last week to the Francis Crick Institute in his north London constituency, where he was shown an image of someone’s lung affected by air pollution.

‘They blew up up for me an incredibly detailed photograph of a lung with very dark marks on it, which were all the air pollution from our roads which were causing cancer in that and many other patients,’ he said.

‘It think it’s worth us all just asking ourselves, if we are not prepared to do these sort of schemes what are we going to do?

‘If increasing numbers of people, and young people as well, are getting cancer. I have to say, I took an intake of breath when I saw the photgraph.

‘They said there are the dark areas that are lung cancer because of it (air pollution).

‘We can’t just sit that out. But I’m not saying I don’t understand that paying money to use your vehicle for people who are already up against it is a big ask.

‘But I don’t think we can sit this one out.’

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