Tory MPs have called for Sir Keir Starmer to “get off the fence” and tell Sadiq Khan to axe the expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) after a court ruled the plans are lawful.
Government ministers stressed the matter was out of their hands as they turned their attention to the Labour leader’s position on the controversial policy.
But a senior Starmer ally appeared to rule out an intervention on Friday night, saying while Sir Keir is against the ULEZ expansion, it is a devolved matter so the party “will have to take it on the chin”.
On Friday, London’s Labour mayor Mr Khan hailed a “landmark” ruling after a judge said he had the power to expand ULEZ, the zone where polluting vehicles can be charged £12.50 a day.
But Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “Just because he has the right to doesn’t mean he should clobber hard working Londoners.”
Mr Harper said the government opposes the scheme but because transport is a devolved matter there is nothing they can do to stop it.
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“It’s a Labour London Mayor that’s made this decision. We’ve called on the leader of the Labour party to tell the London mayor not to roll out this scheme,” he said.
Image: London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) is to be expanded in August
Business Secretary Grant Shapps also called out Sir Keir directly.
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In a tweet he said: “Labour will take this as a win, but hardworking people will lose because Sadiq Khan doesn’t care about hitting drivers with unneeded costs.
“Lets see what kind of Leader @Keir_Starmeris. Time to get off the fence & tell your Mayor to do the right thing and stop the ULEZ expansion.”
Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden said the High Court ruling was a “loss for hardworking people” in his constituency, which borders Greater London, adding: “Keir Starmer should tell his Mayor to abandon this unnecessary and unfair expansion.”
Labour’s failure to win Boris Johnson’s old seat – which seemed ripe for the taking amid a double digit lead in the polls – was widely blamed on the issue.
Tory MPs are now eyeing an opportunity to draw a dividing line with Labour on environmental policies that impose a direct cost on consumers.
Mr Khan has a statuary duty to improve London’s air quality.
But Mr Harper claimed: “This is about raising money, that’s what people can see and it’s part of the reason for the result in the Uxbridge by-election.”
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1:29
Sadiq Khan says ULEZ ‘landmark decision is good news for London’.
Labour ‘will have to take ULEZ on the chin’
Mr Khan was standing by his plan for ULEZ following Friday’s court challenge, which was brought by five Tory-led councils in outer London areas.
It poses a fresh headache for Sir Keir, who in recent days has declined to say if London’s charge on polluting vehicles should go ahead.
Senior party figures were quick to urge Mr Khan to reflect on the policy in the wake of the by-election and on Thursday, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said now is not the right time to “clobber” Londoners with the ULEZ charge.
However on Friday, shadow cabinet minister Wes Streeting went further and told Times Radio: “I think Keir has been very clear that he doesn’t want it to go ahead at this stage, as has [shadow Chancellor] Rachel Reeves. I would agree with them.
“But Sadiq is the Mayor of London. He doesn’t answer to us, he answers to Londoners.”
Mr Streeting said that “If you believe in devolution you believe in his right to do that”.
“We’re going to have to take it on the chin. And he’s going to take the criticism on the chin and we’ll see what happens.”
Mr Khan argues ULEZ will incentivise people to use cleaner transport alternatives and, as a result, help improve the city’s air quality.
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2:21
ULEZ expansion ruled legal
Speaking after the judgement he told Sky News: “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.”
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”.
Later, he tweeted a reference to the climate emergency.
“Everything we hold dear depends on a world that we can live in. From the shores of the Mediterranean to the Canadian Rockies, the earth is burning. Our global leaders must keep to the promises they have made to secure the future of our planet against the climate crisis.”
Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment.
A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.
But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.
The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.
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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.
Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.
The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.
“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.
“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”
Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.
It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.
“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”
The review will mean:
• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion
• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves
• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth
Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.
“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”
However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.
Kentucky’s finance watchdog has dismissed its lawsuit against Coinbase over the exchange’s staking rewards program, following its peers in Vermont and South Carolina.
Kentucky’s Department of Financial Institutions filed the stipulation to dismiss jointly with Coinbase on April 1, ending the state’s legal action against the exchange first filed along with 10 other state regulators in June 2023.
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal posted to X on April 1, calling for Congress “to end this litigation-driven, state-by-state approach with a federal market structure law.”
Financial regulators from 10 states launched similar suits against Coinbase in June 2023, on the same day the Securities and Exchange Commission sued the exchange — a lawsuit the SEC dropped last month.
Seven suits against Coinbase still active
Alabama, California, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington and Wisconsin are the seven states that are still continuing with their lawsuits, which all allege Coinbase breached securities laws with its staking rewards program.
Vermont was the first state to end its suit against Coinbase, with its Department of Financial Regulation filing an order to rescind the action on March 13, noting the SEC’s Feb. 27 decision to drop its action against the exchange and the likelihood of changes in the federal regulator’s guidance.
The South Carolina Attorney General’s securities division followed Vermont days later, dismissing its lawsuit in a joint stipulation with Coinbase on March 27.
Kentucky’s decision to drop its case against Coinbase follows just days after the state’s governor, Andy Beshear, signed a “Bitcoin Rights” bill into law on March 24 that establishes protections for crypto self-custody and exempts crypto mining from money transmitting and securities laws.
The axed state-level lawsuits come amid a stark policy change at the SEC, which has dropped or delayed multiple lawsuits against crypto companies that it filed under the Biden administration.
The federal securities watchdog has also created a Crypto Task Force that is engaging with the industry on how it should approach cryptocurrencies.
Sir Keir Starmer has said US-UK trade talks are “well advanced” ahead of tariffs expected to be imposed by Donald Trump on the UK this week – but rejected a “knee-jerk” response.
Speaking to Sky News political editor Beth Rigby, the prime minister said the UK is “working hard on an economic deal” with the US and said “rapid progress” has been made on it ahead of tariffs expected to be imposed on Wednesday.
But, he admitted: “Look, the likelihood is there will be tariffs. Nobody welcomes that, nobody wants a trade war.
“But I have to act in the national interest and that means all options have to remain on the table.”
Sir Keir added: “We are discussing economic deals. We’re well advanced.
“These would normally take months or years, and in a matter of weeks, we’ve got well advanced in those discussions, so I think that a calm approach, a collected approach, not a knee-jerk approach, is what’s needed in the best interests of our country.”
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Downing Street said on Monday the UK is expecting to be hit by new US tariffs on Wednesday – branded “liberation day” by the US president – as a deal to exempt British goods would not be reached in time.
A 25% levy on car and car parts had already been announced but the new tariffs are expected to cover all exports to the US.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, earlier told Sky News he is “hopeful” the tariffs can be reversed soon.
But he warned: “The longer we don’t have a potential resolution, the more we will have to consider our own position in relation to [tariffs], precluding retaliatory tariffs.”
He added the government was taking a “calm-headed” approach in the hope a deal can be agreed but said it is only “reasonable” retaliatory tariffs are an option, echoing Sir Keir’s sentiments over the weekend.
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0:28
‘Everything on table over US tariffs’
Mr Trump will unveil his tariff plan on Wednesday afternoon at the first Rose Garden news conference of his second term, the White House press secretary said.
“Wednesday, it will be Liberation Day in America, as President Trump has so proudly dubbed it,” Karoline Leavitt said.
“The president will be announcing a tariff plan that will roll back the unfair trade practices that have been ripping off our country for decades. He’s doing this in the best interest of the American worker.”
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3:09
Trump’s tariffs: What can we expect?
Tariffs would cut UK economy by 1%
UK government forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said a 20 percentage point increase in tariffs on UK goods and services would cut the size of the British economy by 1% and force tax rises this autumn.
Global markets remained flat or down on Monday in anticipation of the tariffs, with the FTSE 100 stock exchange trading about 1.3% lower on Monday, closing with a 0.9% loss.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% after a volatile day which saw it down as much as 1.7% in the morning.
However, the FTSE 100 is expected to open about 0.4% higher on Tuesday, while Asian markets also steadied, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 broadly unchanged after a 4% slump yesterday.