London mayor
Sadiq Khan has stepped up his war on motorists by ordering officials to draw up plans for introducing a road-pricing scheme.
Ministers told the Commons yesterday that the Labour mayor was planning to hit drivers with a pay-per-mile or pay-per-minute regime to use the capital's roads.
Older vehicles which pollute the environment and motorists using roads at peak times could be charged more under the scheme.
It sparked fury among MPs and campaigners, who accused Mr Khan of trying to 'shut London down'.
There are also fears he could try to impose the initiative on the entire Greater London area, echoing his controversial Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) scheme.
The Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) currently covers the area inside the North and South Circular roads, but the Mayor intends to expand it across all of Greater London on August 29.
The £12.50 daily Ulez charge is set to be expanded to all London boroughs on August 29. It applies to cars that do not meet strict environmental standards.
Roads minister Richard Holden told MPs he met senior officials at Transport for London (TfL), where Mr Khan is chairman, on Tuesday.
He said: 'They informed me that the mayor of London, in anticipation of falling revenues from the Ulez in the future – in the next few years – had asked them to investigate the technicalities of introducing road charging across London in the future.'
It is not known how the scheme would work but the mayor could use the capital's CCTV cameras to enforce it, to monitor how long a driver was on the road for or how far they had travelled.
Ministers see road pricing as one way of plugging the growing hole in the public finances due to more people switching to electric cars, which are exempt from road tax.
Pure electric cars don't run on petrol or diesel so fuel duty receipts are also falling. Road tax and fuel duty are worth more than £30billion to the Treasury every year.
Tory MP Greg Smith said:
'I think we do have to have a debate in this country about how, when petrol and diesel is no more, you fill the shortfall from motoring taxes.
'But for Sadiq Khan to try to do it unilaterally, without Treasury involvement, when there's still full throttle fuel duty, vehicle excise duty and his own Ulez and congestion charges in place, it's yet another slap in the face from a Labour mayor.
He... is doing his best to shut London down.'
Christina Calderato, TfL's Director of Strategy and Policy, said: 'The technology to implement a simple and fair road user charging scheme in a complex city like London is still many years away.'
Howard Cox, London mayoral candidate for Reform UK and founder of the FairFuelUK campaign, said: '
The cameras he is rabidly installing across London are not just to grab ULEZ cash, they are being dishonestly put in place to support his pay-per-mile plans too.
'There will be a rebellion of seismic proportions if road charging is implemented without a full referendum of drivers.
London's Ulez mirrors similar low-emission zones to improve air quality in more than 200 cities in ten countries across Europe.
In March,
Mr Khan claimed that 'anti-vaxxers, Covid deniers, conspiracy theorists and Nazis' had joined 'decent Tories' in opposing the Ulez expansion.
He also branded some Ulez opponents 'far-Right' at a public meeting in Ealing, west London, earlier that month.
Mr Khan's comments at the time sparked outrage, with Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands calling for him to be voted out in the next election.
Ministers told the Commons yesterday that the Labour mayor was planning to hit drivers with a pay-per-mile or pay-per-minute regime to use the capital's roads.
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