It will make white van man healthier! Khan’s ‘desperate’ defence of Ulez
SADIQ Khan has sought to justify his controversial Ulez expansion by claiming it will lead to builders taking fewer sick days.
The Mayor of London said increasing the ultra-low emission zone levy to cover the entire capital later this month was in ‘tradespeople’s interests’.
He told Fix Radio in an interview broadcast yesterday that the £12.50 daily charge would result in cleaner air, reducing pollution and the likelihood of conditions such as asthma.
Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate and Mr Khan’s main rival in next year’s mayoral contest, said: ‘Sadiq Khan is so desperate for this Ulez income, he has lost touch with reality.
‘The mayor believes tradespeople having to shut down their businesses because of his Ulez expansion should be grateful because they might have fewer sick days. It is insulting, arrogant and untrue.’
She has repeatedly said she would scrap the Ulez expansion on her first day in office.
Mr Khan has come under increasing pressure from Londoners over the policy, including from Labour top brass after Sir Keir Starmer asked the mayor to ‘reflect’ on the policy following the Tories’ byelection victory in the west London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip last month, where Ulez was a key issue for voters.
He told Fix Radio, dubbed ‘the builders’ station’, that tradespeople are ‘concerned’ about the amount of congestion on the capital’s roads.
And in an attempt to justify the expansion, he added: ‘I understand, it’s particularly difficult now, tradespeople are taking time off work because of asthma and other health-related issues caused by respiratory conditions.
‘It’s in tradespeople’s interests to be having vehicles that are compliant because it means they take off less time from work by being unwell because of air pollution.’
He added: ‘What we want to do is take off our roads cars that don’t need to be there.
‘So those people who need to be driving and they include many of your listeners and readers who need to be driving can do so without being stuck in traffic, actually, by having more people walk, cycle and use public transport, it means less time stuck in traffic and leads to greater productivity.’ But the radio station said that the Ulez expansion will have ‘a direct and detrimental impact on close to a quarter of all construction businesses’ in Greater London.
Mr Khan last week defended the policy, telling LBC radio: ‘It [the decision to expand] was a difficult one, but in my view it is a vital one for me to take and I stand by it.’