Ministers were lambasted on social media today as users pointed out the government had previously approved the expansion of ULEZ in London.
It follows today’s London-wide expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone that charges drivers whose vehicles do not meet minimum emissions standards a £12.50 daily fee.
Sadiq Khan announced proposals to extend ULEZ – the brainchild of former Conservative mayor Boris Johnson – to all of London’s boroughs in November last year.
He faces strong opposition, with regular protests against the plan and targeting of enforcement cameras installed in the new areas.
But ULEZ has also become a highly politicised issue, being blamed for Labour’s failure to win last month’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election while also the subject of legal action brought by Conservative-run councils.
Johnson used his Daily Mail column to slam the scheme, calling it an “odious, unjustified tax on drivers”, while Peter Fortune, a Conservative member of the Greater London Assembly accused Khan of conspiring to silence legitimate research against the expansion.
Speaking to the PA news agency, the Labour mayor said: “The vast majority of Londoners want to see clean air and I recognise there are some Londoners with genuine concerns.
“My job is to try and address those concerns and I have been doing that.”
Selective memory?
The Conservatives continue to claim that the changes were brought by Khan, but they forgotten it was their own government that approved the expansion of ULEZ in 2020?
BBC Breakfast’s Jon Kay was on hand to remind transport secretary Mark Harper of just that while discussing the expansion, reminding him that ULEZ was in-fact government policy.
This is not the first-time the government has had to be reminded of its seemingly selective memory. A leaked letter penned by then transport secretary Grant Shapps revealed the government had urged Khan to extend the capital’s current congestion charge zone in 2020 as a condition for funding public transport.
It read: “The immediate reintroduction of the London Congestion Charge, LEZ and ULEZ and urgently bring forward proposals to widen the scope and levels of these charges in accordance with the relevant legal powers and decision-making processes.”
Perhaps it’s time the Tories made their minds up.
Related: £12.50 daily charge introduced as Ulez expands to include whole of London