Politics

ULEZ expansion legal, High Court rules

Published

2 years ago

July 28, 2023

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The expansion of ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) to outer London boroughs has been ruled lawful by the High Court.

Five Conservative-run councils had launched legal action back in February over the expansion.

The scheme will come into force from 29 August and see the drivers of the most polluting vehicles charged £12.50 a day to use them.

The hope of those behind the plan is it will incentivise people to use cleaner transport alternatives and, as a result, help improve the city’s air quality.

Transport for London has claimed only a small number of people will be impacted, with nine out of 10 vehicles compliant with ULEZ requirements.

But the councils challenged the rollout in the courts, saying the capital’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, had exceeded his legal powers with such a large expansion of the scheme.

The five local authorities – Hillingdon, Bexley, Bromley and Harrow in London, plus Surrey County Council – also claimed the consultation on the plan was flawed, and not enough information had been shared over the scrappage scheme, which provides payouts to people prepared to ditch their vehicles.

While other parts of the challenge were dismissed in April, the councils were granted a hearing in the High Court, and the two sides fought it out over two days of evidence.

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The ruling comes a week after the debate around ULEZ dominated a local by-election and the fallout from the results.

The seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip – left vacant by the departure of Boris Johnson – seemed ripe for the taking for Labour in light of recent polling that gives the party a double digit lead over the Tories.

But the Conservative candidate managed a narrow victory – albeit seeing the majority for the party fall from over 7,000 to less than 500 – having turned its campaign into a referendum on ULEZ.

Since then, Labour have been in turmoil over the policy and whether to support it, with Sir Keir Starmer saying he had asked the mayor to “reflect” on the impact of the scheme.

However, Mr Khan has said he is committed to ULEZ expansion, telling Sky News: “It was a difficult decision to take. But just like nobody will accept drinking dirty water, why accept dirty air?”

‘The right decision’

Following the ruling, Mr Khan told Sky News: “This landmark decision today is good news for London, because it means from the end of August we can make greater progress in cleaning up the air in outer London.

“The decision to expand ULEZ was a difficult one for me to take, it wasn’t taken lightly, but it’s essential we make more progress cleaning up the air in our city.

“Every year in our city, there’s around 4,000 premature deaths directly linked with air pollution and children with stunted lungs forever.”

Referencing the opposition to the scheme and the debate surrounding it, Mr Khan said: “I have been listening and I will carry on listening” but added that the High Court ruling was “quite clear”.

He went on to say that the 10 boroughs with the highest number of premature deaths are all in outer London.

Asked if ULEZ was the reason Labour failed to win the Uxbridge by-election last week, Mr Khan said: “The decision to expand ULEZ was a very difficult decision for me to make.

“It wasn’t one I took lightly, but it was the right one.”

Last month, the Greater London Authority commissioned a report by air quality and climate change consultants Aether into pollution levels in London.

It found that while progress had been made to reduce air pollution concentrations since 2016, the city’s population was still forecast to remain exposed to nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in concentrations above the air quality guidelines recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2030 “unless further significant action is taken to reduce concentrations”.

Sadiq Khan will be breathing a sigh of relief

Rob Powell

Political correspondent

@robpowellnews

After a bumpy week for the Mayor’s ULEZ expansion, this is very good news for Sadiq Khan.

If this legal challenge had succeeded, it could have meant a delay to next month’s rollout as elements of the consultation process were run again.

But whilst this legal hurdle has been cleared, political ones remain.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has made it clear that he wants there to be a rethink– after the expansion plan cost his party the Uxbridge by-election last week.

The London Mayor has said he’s open to ideas to help people impacted by the charge but is determined to plough on with the central policy on the current timetable.

That opens a rift between party headquarters and one of the most senior elected Labour politicians in the country.

A compromise could involve the scrappage scheme being bolstered further but that would likely come with more requests for cash from Central government.

The Tories will attempt to turn next spring’s London mayoral elections into a referendum on ULEZ expansion.

The hope in City Hall will be that by forcing this controversial policy through now without delay, tempers may have cooled by the time Londoners head to the ballot box.

It also found the most deprived communities of London still more commonly live in the most polluted areas and that the areas that had the lowest air pollution concentrations had a disproportionately white population.

“The exposure inequalities experienced between ethnic groups are much more pronounced in outer London than inner London,” the consultants found.

But Steve Tuckwell, the Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip who campaigned against ULEZ expansion during the by-election, said constituents had sent a “clear message” to the mayor to “halt your ULEZ expansion”.

“Londoners cannot go on being ignored by the Labour Party, who are making the choice to expand ULEZ, saddling families and businesses with a £4,500 a year charge – a tax on carers, parents, patients, sole traders and all hard-working Londoners,” he said.

His words were echoed by Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate who will take on Mr Khan at next year’s mayoral election, who said: “While it is a shame the High Court did not find the ULEZ expansion to be unlawful, there is no denying that Sadiq Khan’s plans will have a devastating impact on families and businesses across the city.

“If I am elected mayor, I will stop the ULEZ expansion on day one and set up a £50m pollution hotspots fund to tackle the issue where it is, instead of taxing people where it isn’t.”

As well as putting pressure on Mr Khan, the ULEZ policy also prompted a debate within the Tory Party and emboldened the more climate sceptic wing of the party, who want Rishi Sunak to slow down the transition to net zero.

Downing Street has confirmed ministers are scrutinising existing pledges “in light of some of the cost of living challenges”, with Mr Sunak saying some green measures must be “proportionate and pragmatic” instead of adding cost and “hassle” to households.

Politics

Sir Keir Starmer ‘absolutely’ wants Angela Rayner back in cabinet

Published

7 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer 'absolutely' wants Angela Rayner back in cabinet

Sir Keir Starmer has said he “absolutely” wants Angela Rayner back in his cabinet after she resigned for failing to pay the correct amount of stamp duty.

Speaking from the G20 Summit in South Africa, the prime minister told broadcasters his former deputy is “the best example ever” of social mobility and he is still in touch with her.

Asked if she could make a comeback this side of a general election, Sir Keir said: “I’ve always said I want Angela back. Even back in September at the time I said she is going to be a big voice in the Labour movement.

“Do I want Angela back at some stage? Yes absolutely.

“I think she is the best example ever in the United Kingdom of social mobility – going from a pretty challenging childhood to being deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom. She is the story of social mobility above all other stories.”

Asked if he missed having her around, Sir Keir said: “I’m friends with Angie and I like Angie a lot and we talk a lot. We still do.

“It’s always good to have Angela.”

Ms Rayner’s meteoric rise to the top of Labour came after she left school aged 16, pregnant and with no qualifications.

She was elected deputy Labour leader by the membership in 2020, and was made deputy prime minister then housing secretary by Sir Keir.

She resigned from all of those positions in September, after it emerged she had not paid the higher rate of stamp duty on a second home she bought in Hove, East Sussex, saving her about £40k.

It followed a tearful interview with Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby about the “complex living arrangement” regarding her first home, which was sold to a trust following her divorce to provide stability for her teenage son, who has lifelong disabilities and is the sole beneficiary of the trust.

An investigation by the prime minister ethic’s watchdog found she breached the ministerial code by failing to get correct tax advice, but that she acted “with integrity”.

Ms Rayner is still a backbench MP and recently did not rule out a return to the front bench herself – telling the Daily Mirror during a visit to a care centre in her constituency that she had “not gone away”.

Other cabinet ministers have also supported her return.

During the Labour Party Conference a few weeks after she resigned, Health Secretary Wes Streeting paid tribute to her work on the Employment Rights Bill and said Labour “wants her back and needs her back”.

Politics

Rachel Reeves vows to ‘grip the cost of living’ – despite expectation of tax rises in budget

Published

9 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Rachel Reeves vows to 'grip the cost of living' - despite expectation of tax rises in budget

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has promised to “grip the cost of living” in the budget next week.

Writing in The Mirror newspaper, she acknowledged that high prices “hit ordinary families most” and that the economy “feels stuck” for too many.

But at the same time, she is expected to raise taxes when she sets out economic policies on 26 November as she seeks to bridge a multibillion-pound gap in her spending plans.

“Delivering on our promise to make people better off is not possible if we don’t get a grip on inflation,” Ms Reeves wrote in The Sunday Times.

“It is a fundamental precursor to economic growth. It is essential to make families better off and for businesses to thrive.

“There is an urgent need to ease the pressure on households now. It will require direct action by this government to get inflation under control.”

She said reforms would change the welfare system from “trapping millions of people on benefits” to one “designed to help people succeed”.

It comes as the government announced that rail fares will be frozen for the first time in 30 years.

The fare freeze applies to England and services run by English train operators.

And it will save commuters on more expensive routes more than £300 a year.

Among the rumoured measures in the budget is an extension of the freeze on income tax thresholds, which would see more people dragged into paying tax for the first time or shifted into a higher rate as their wages go up.

However, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Ms Reeves should “have the balls” to admit that such a move would breach Labour’s manifesto promise not to raise taxes on working people.

Politics

Ex-Reform leader in Wales who took pro-Russia bribes ‘can’t besmirch everyone else’, says party’s head of policy Zia Yusuf

Published

9 hours ago

November 23, 2025

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Ex-Reform leader in Wales who took pro-Russia bribes 'can't besmirch everyone else', says party's head of policy Zia Yusuf

Nathan Gill’s actions were “treasonous” but people should not “besmirch everyone else at Reform”, the party’s head of policy Zia Yusuf has said.

Gill, the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, was jailed for 10 and a half years last week after he admitted accepting tens of thousands of pounds in cash to make pro-Russian statements to the media and European Parliament.

Asked by Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips if the case showed the party was soft on President Vladimir Putin, Mr Yusuf said that would be an “incredibly unreasonable position to take”.

He said: “Nathan Gill, what he did was treasonous, it was horrific, it was awful. He’s been dealt with by the authorities and he deserves the sentence that he got.”

He added: “As far as we’re concerned he is ancient history. I’ve never met him, I had never heard about him until I saw he was in the newspapers. It is unreasonable to besmirch Reform and the millions of people around the country who support Nigel and support our party.”

Gill, 52, was announced as the leader of Reform UK in Wales in March 2021, but quit the party a few months later after he failed to be elected to the Senedd.

He previously led the Welsh wing of UKIP (UK Independence Party) between 2014 and 2016, then ran by Nigel Farage, and was a member of the Senedd between 2016 and 2017, as well as an MEP between 2014 and 2020.

Gill left UKIP in 2019 to join Mr Farage’s new Brexit Party – later rebranded as Reform UK.

Following an investigation by counter-terrorism police, officers said they believe Gill likely took a minimum of £40,000 in cash.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer demanded an investigation into links between Reform UK and Russia following the case.

Mr Farage’s position on Russia has come under scrutiny in the past. He faced a backlash during the general election campaign when he spoke about the incursion of NATO and how “we provoked this war” in Ukraine.

Speaking to Trevor Phillips, Mr Yusuf insisted his boss has never supported or been sympathetic to Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine, saying it is “not Nigel’s position that ‘we provoked the war’.”

He said: “When he [Farage] was pressed as to how he would respond if he was prime minister and Russian jets encroached into NATO airspace, his view was that those planes should be shot down. We are crystal clear about our position.

“I would also say this: the notion that Vladimir Putin, the murderous dictator, is making decisions based on what Nigel Farage is saying here in England, I think is for the birds.

“We are now in a situation where Ukraine’s sovereignty has been violated, and Vladimir Putin needs to be brought to heel.”

But Labour accused Reform of “pandering to Moscow” following the interview.

Anna Turley, chair of the Labour Party, said Mr Farage has previously called Mr Putin “the leader he most admired and has repeatedly parroted Kremlin talking points”.

She added: “Reform must urgently allow an independent investigation to root out pro-Russia links, to assure the public that Putin holds no sway over their party or its representatives.”

Police have confirmed Mr Farage has not been part of the investigation into Gill.

Mr Farage said on Friday: “An investigation into Russian and Chinese influence over British politics would be welcome.”

The Reform UK MP for Clacton had previously described his former colleague as a “bad apple” and said he was “shocked” after Gill pleaded guilty to bribery.

He said: “Any political party can find in their midst all sorts of terrible people.

“You can never, ever guarantee 100% that everyone you meet in your life, you shake hands with in the pub, is a good person.”