Minister defends M-ways

TRANSPORT Secretary Mark Harper has said controversial smart motorways are “safe” – at odds with the view of the Prime Minister.

Rishi Sunak branded the roads, which convert the hard shoulder into an extra lane, “unsafe” during the Tory leadership race and pledged to ban them.

But Mr Harper said ministers would wait for five years of safety data before deciding whether to scrap them.

And he said data collected so far “would suggest they are safe”.