Residents don’t want politicians “playing politics” over ULEZ, Khan argues

Sadiq Khan has argued that Londoners do not want to see politicians “playing politics” with public health and the climate crisis “for short-term political gain” on the day the ultra-low emission zone is expanded to include outer London boroughs.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper this morning described the plans as a “scheme to charge hard-pressed motorists more money for making essential journeys” and claimed that the London mayor’s own impact assessment showed the expansion would have “almost no appreciable impact on air quality”.

Khan has also faced scrutiny from within Labour over the plans, with Keir Starmer saying the London mayor should “reflect” on the impact of extending the zone into outer London in the aftermath of the party’s loss in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election in July.

ULEZ – which sees drivers of more polluting vehicles charged – was widely seen as a factor in the party’s loss in the outer London seat, and was acknowledged as such by Khan on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.

Shadow employment rights minister Justin Madders argued on Monday that the expansion was an “expense too many” amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, telling LBC radio the mayor should “think about whether this really is the right time to be going ahead with it”.

Asked whether the expansion could impact Labour in the next general election, Khan told Sky News today: “This was a difficult decision. I genuinely think it’s a vital one and I think it’s the right one.

“And actually, I think Londoners wanna see cleaner air in our city. They wanna see their leaders taking bold action. What they don’t want is politicians for short-term political gain playing politics with public health and the climate emergency.”

Khan said: “The evidence is quite clear in relation to the consequences of air pollution. It does lead to, in London, around 4,000 premature deaths a year. It leads to children having stunted lungs forever, adults with a whole host of health issues from asthma to cancer, dementia to heart disease.”

He continued: “There is an effective policy that reduces air pollution. How do we know this? Because we have the ULEZ in central London and it’s managed to reduce the pollutants, the toxicity, by almost 50%. A third fewer children admitted to hospital with air pollution problems because of the ULEZ in central London.

“We expanded it to inner London, and we saw a further 21% reduction in air pollution, but also we’ve seen 1,400 schools with children breathing cleaner air.

“Here’s the real problem: in outer London, we’ve not seen any significant improvement. The ten boroughs with the largest number of premature deaths are all in outer London. The 30 GP practices, 24 of the 30 which have the worst patients with respiratory issues are all in outer London.”

The London mayor stressed that he has been “listening to the concerns” people have about the expansion, highlighting the scrappage scheme that has been introduced “without a penny of support from the government”, which he said would mean “anybody in London… who may have a non-compliant vehicle can receive support”.

Starmer argued at a meeting of Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF) in July that the Uxbridge result was a reminder that “policy matters” in an election and stressed the importance of the party’s priorities being the “priorities of working people”, not “baggage that shows them we don’t see the country through their eyes”.

The Labour leader appeared to criticise Khan during his speech to the NPF and warn against more radical policies, telling attendees: “We are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour Party end up on each and every Tory leaflet.”

The party reportedly amended its position on clean air zones during the NPF meeting, removing a paragraph from its draft policy platform that stated that the party “supports the principle of clean air zones” while also noting that they “must be phased in carefully”.