Starmer's workable Commons majority ambition at risk from ULEZ fiasco

Sir Keir Starmer’s drive to win a workable Commons majority being put at risk by Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ fiasco, which Labour insiders fear will hit the poorest

• Insiders warn ULEZ plans could deny Labour victory in seats just outside London 
• They said former Labour seats such as Thurrock and Dartford could stay Tory

Sir Keir Starmer’s drive to win a workable Commons majority at the General Election is being put at risk by Sadiq Khan’s London-wide anti-pollution plans, which Labour insiders fear will hit the poorest.

They warned that the London mayor’s controversial ambition to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) for polluting vehicles could deny Labour victory in winnable seats just outside the capital.

Party insiders said former Labour seats such as Thurrock and Dartford that Sir Keir should be winning back could now stay Tory because of widespread anger at being charged £12.50 just to drive from there into Greater London.

And in a sign of the scale of the damage Mr Khan was inflicting on his own party, they pointed to how the Tories were ‘gleefully’ putting the loathed ULEZ extension centre-stage on their campaign leaflets for next month’s local elections.

Last night, one insider lashed out at the London mayor, saying: ‘When was the last time Sadiq Khan did the national party any favours?’

Pictured: Sir Keir Starmer (file photo). Party insiders said former Labour seats such as Thurrock and Dartford that Sir Keir  should be winning back could now stay Tory because of widespread anger at being charged £12.50 just to drive from there into Greater London

Pictured: Sadiq Khan (File photo). In a sign of the scale of the damage Mr Khan was inflicting on his own party, party insiders pointed to how the Tories were ‘gleefully’ putting the loathed ULEZ extension centre-stage on their campaign leaflets for next month’s local elections

However, allies of Mr Khan hitback to attack Tory ‘scaremongering’, insisting that the scheme would affect very few existing vehicles and would ‘not be an issue’ at the General Election expected next year.

The controversial ULEZ plan will go to a judicial review after five local authorities were last week granted leave to challenge its implementation.

The mayor’s spokesman said that nine out of ten cars in outer London were already ‘ULEZ compliant’, adding that ‘around 4,000 Londoners die every year as a result of poor quality air’.

But Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Khan should postpone the scheme, saying that small businesses and the less well-off in the outer London suburbs would be hard hit. She added: ‘It’s a laudable aim to clean up the environment but it cannot be right that the poorest and the most financially marginal are impacted. It cannot be right at a time when the economy is so shaky to put small businesses in jeopardy.’

Dartford Tory MP Gareth Johnson said: ‘If the ULEZ expansion goes ahead, that would be catastrophic for Dartford, particularly for the poorest.’

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