Yahoo News Sadiq Khan called 'scaremonger' for claiming scrapping ULEZ would cost £283 million
A London mayoral candidate has called Sadiq Khan a 'scaremonger' after he claimed that scrapping the ULEZ would cost £283 million. Reform UK's pick for the capital's highest office, Howard Cox, has promised to get rid of the entire £12.50 charge zone - which was expanded by Mr Khan to include outer boroughs on August 29 - as well as the LEZ if elected on May 2.
The Tory candidate for mayor, Susan Hall, has pledged to reverse this. Mr Cox has criticised her for only committing to getting rid of the 'doughnut' and not the whole thing.
Mr Khan's team said on Friday when announcing the mayor's '10 point plan' for net zero in the city by 2030: "Scrapping ULEZ would not only waste an estimated £283.2 million, but lead to air pollution increasing in London due to more non-compliant cars driving in from outside London."
MyLondon asked the mayor how much he thought it would cost to get rid of just the ULEZ expansion. He replied: "I've not looked into it."
Mr Cox told MyLondon: "Yet more emotive ill-informed scaremongering from this dishonest mayor. He continues to fleece poorer families and sole traders to wreck London’s economy further under the guise of environmental lies.
"Instead he should be incentivising the adoption of clean fossil fuel technology. His inept financial management of our capital city means he has to rely on cash grabbing policies. Only Reform UK will scrap all ULEZ across the whole of London."
Tory candidate promises £50m to tackle pollution 'hotspots'
Ms Hall told MyLondon in October: ""Outer Londoners can’t afford it [the ULEZ]. Some of the stories I’m hearing are heartbreaking - genuinely heartbreaking." She then called the mayor 'delusional'.
Instead, Ms Hall says she would provide a pot of £50 million to local authorities across the capital for officials to initiate smaller scale action, such as tackling emissions 'hotspots' in Outer London. A hypothetical example she described was having a traffic 'logjam' because of built up pavements.
The road would then be changed using the cash. Or, alternatively, a bus route may need electrification. Mr Khan's team also said on Friday: "Sadiq has been the greenest mayor ever, making London a world-leader in tackling pollution and the climate crisis.
"Under his tenure as Mayor, London has won National Park City status, created the world’s largest clean air zone, planted more than half a million trees, restored the equivalent of more than 300 football pitches of habitat for London’s wildlife, launched a £500 million fund to cut carbon emissions and create green jobs, turned London into a global centre for green finance, put 1,400 zero-emission buses on London’s roads, delivered a four-fold increase in the number of public electric vehicle charge points and delivered a fivefold increase in protected cycling lanes.
"Since 2016, roadside nitrogen dioxide pollution in London has been cut in half and London has become the first major city to commit to net zero by 2030."
A London Labour spokesperson said: “This election is a close two-horse race between Sadiq, and the hard-right Conservative candidate for mayor who couldn’t be more out of touch with our city and its values. She is a supporter of Donald Trump, cheered Liz Truss’s disastrous mini budget, and has promoted racist comments by Enoch Powell on social media.
"In the last few weeks, she’s voted against Sadiq’s plans to freeze TfL fares and provide free school meals for all state primary school children in the capital. The choice is between Sadiq with a positive vision who will continue to build a fairer, safer and greener London for everyone, or the hard-right Tory candidate, who stands for cuts to London’s public services, inequality and division. The Tories have failed the country. We can’t let them do to London what they’ve done to the rest of the country.”
Read our full exclusive interview with the current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, ahead of May 2 here. You can also read MyLondon's interview with the Tory candidate, Susan Hall, here.
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