Uber ban reveals Labour’s dogma

Readers living outside London might think that the fate of an American-owned, unprofitable, app-based taxi company operating in the capital is of little interest to the country at large. Yet the decision of Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, to remove Uber’s business licence tells us much about how a Labour government would work.

It would be insular, over-regulated, resistant to innovation, protective of vested interests and closed to global investment – just as the exigencies of Brexit require the very opposite approach.

The ostensible reason for the ban imposed by Transport for London is to protect the public from a vanishingly small minority of Uber drivers found to have breached their identity checks. Risks to passengers can never be fully removed. The one serial sex abuser who used a cab to pick up his victims was, in fact, the driver of a black taxi, John Worboys. The Uber app tracks all journeys taken, and its drivers are also rated by past customers.

This is not to defend Uber itself. There are issues with the way the company operates which have fallen foul of the rules the regulator must uphold. But that is an argument for proper enforcement or encouraging other similar companies to enter the market. Labour’s real objection to Uber and other companies like them is to the whole idea of employment flexibility and economic dynamism. Under Jeremy Corbyn, the trade unions which back him are looking to recapture some of the influence they enjoyed before their wings were clipped by the Thatcher government’s reforms.

This is all driven by ideology since it cannot possibly be motivated by a singular pursuit of popularity. More than three million Londoners use Uber’s 45,000 drivers and they are unlikely to look kindly on Mr Khan’s apparent determination to insist they all use the much more expensive black cabs. The company will continue to operate in London pending an appeal and in 40 towns and cities around the UK.

But the London ban is of a piece with Labour’s war on flexible contracts, which suit many employees and have helped boost jobs to record levels. A manifesto promise to abolish them is another example of how the party will always put producer interests against those of consumers, just as they do with education and the NHS. What Mayor Khan has done in London is a harbinger of what prime minister Corbyn would do nationally, given half a chance. We must hope he never is.