We will ditch Boris over bike lanes, say 27pc of Tory voters

BORIS JOHNSON is haemorrhaging public support amid anger over the cycle lanes introduced during the pandemic, a poll reveals.

More than one in four people – 27 per cent – who voted Conservative in last year’s General Election say they will not do so next time due to the congestion and disruption caused in towns and cities across the country.

The survey of almost 11,000 drivers and cyclists will send shockwaves through Downing Street as it proceeds with a £2 billion green agenda to reduce car travel.

Ministers hope that putting in bike lanes and closing roads to cars will encourage more people to cycle to work. But the survey found that only 14 per cent of motorists in favour of the new lanes are willing to leave their car at home and start cycling to work.

The online survey by motoring campaign group FairFuelUK was free to complete and open to all road users. More than 2,000 people who answered the questions said they were cyclists.

The findings, which will make uncomfortable reading for No 10, revealed:

• Just three per cent of car drivers said they had taken part in a public consultation on the introduction of cycle

‘Drivers should not be demonised any more’

lanes and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, compared to 34 per cent of cyclists;

• Only two per cent of cyclists said they should be made to adhere to the same road user rules that drivers must legally follow, including paying tax;

• Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of car drivers said the pandemic had been the wrong time to roll out hundreds of miles of new cycle lanes;

• Seventy-six per cent of cyclists said they had ‘no problem’ with unelected special advisers in No 10 influencing the roll-out of cycle lanes.

Howard Cox, founder of the FairFuelUK Campaign, said: ‘Nowhere in the Tory Election manifesto was any mention of our already clogged urban roads being reduced in size for the benefit of so few.

‘The majority of road users, who contribute the fifth-largest income to the Treasury, have never been asked if dedicated cycle lanes should be built, eating into our roads.

‘Unless Boris Johnson recognises that the UK’s 37 million drivers should not be demonised any more, this £2 billion self-indulgent madness, under the dishonest guise of Covid emergency powers, will decimate his 80-seat majority.’

Conservative councillors across the country fear they will lose their seats in the local elections in May because of the backlash against the bike lanes. Some Tory-run local authorities have ripped out the cycle lanes, including West Sussex County and Wandsworth and Kensington councils in London.

Sources say Tory council leaders have been sharing ‘incandescent’ messages on a WhatsApp group bl a ming No 1 0 ’s c ycl i ng tsar Andrew Gilligan for the row.

During a virtual meeting of London Conservative councillors in September, members from Hammersmith and Fulham said the policy risked shedding party votes.

One Tory councillor told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Covid is destroying the London economy, yet senior No 10 staff are spending all their time forcing these unpopular routes on to our already crowded roads. If this continues we’re not going to be left with a single Tory-run council in Central London – it is bizarre.’