Labour 'digging in' over controversial new rules for petrol and diesel drivers

Ministers are reportedly set to "dig in" on controversial plans to ban petrol and diesel cars by 2030. The new Labour Party government is digging in on plans to ban petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and hybrids by 2035, it has been reported.

A source said to the Sun newspaper: “There is no U-turn. The Government has been clear it was just new cars powered solely by petrol and diesel that would be banned. Hybrids have always been part of the plan to support the transition.”

A spokesman said: “The Government’s commitment is to phase out the sale of new cars powered solely by internal combustion engines by 2030 — this has not changed. We will bring forward a consultation which will consider how to support industry to reach this date.”

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It comes after it emerged the owner of Vauxhall told investors that it was “confident” it would meet the UK’s rules on electric vehicle sales just two months before it blamed them for the decision to close a factory in Luton, the Guardian can reveal.

Stellantis cited the UK’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate when it announced the closure of its van factory in Bedfordshire on Tuesday, putting 1,100 workers at risk of redundancy or relocation to its factory making smaller vans in Ellesmere Port.

The UK was “a spot where we’re confident we’re going to be able to hit ZEV mandate by the end of the year”, she said. “We’re confident that we’re going to do it at reasonable profitability.” Quentin Wilson, who founded FairCharge, a pro-electric car group, said the loss of jobs at Luton was “terribly sad”, but that it was more likely to be related to Stellantis’s overcapacity.

“It’s a way of leveraging government, to say if you don’t roll back these targets, this is what’s going to happen,” he said.