Former environment minister Zac Goldsmith has been temporarily banned from driving after he was caught speeding four times last year, including twice on the same road.

The Conservative peer, 48, cannot drive until mid-March when he will be sentenced for exceeding speed limits in a hybrid electric Volkswagen Golf on roads in London between April and August 2023.

Politics Live: Post Office investigator ‘one of worst in history’

Lord Goldsmith, who has pleaded guilty to the four incidents, also faces three other driving-related offences, including one in Somerset, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday.

The first offence happened on 27 April last year, when he was caught travelling along Chelsea Embankment at 29mph, despite the limit being 20mph, according to court papers.

Just over a month later, on 31 May, the Tory environmentalist drove at 46mph on the A316 in Twickenham, which has a 40mph limit.

He was caught speeding on that same road on 3 August, while driving at 47mph.

A month before the August incident, on 18 July , Lord Goldsmith exceeded the 20mph limit on Bayswater Road, next to Kensington Gardens, while travelling at 28mph.

District Judge Nina Tempia imposed an interim disqualification, banning him from driving until his sentencing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 March.

The maximum penalty for speeding is a fine and penalty points or a driving disqualification.

Last April, then immigration minister Robert Jenrick was disqualified from driving for six months for breaking a temporary motorway speed limit by almost 30mph.

Read More:
Security minister Tom Tugendhat banned from driving for six months after being caught using phone behind wheel
Rishi Sunak given fixed penalty notice after being caught not wearing seatbelt

Lord Goldsmith, who unsuccessfully ran to be London mayor in 2016, was previously Conservative MP for Richmond Park before he lost his seat at the 2019 general election.

Despite his rejection by voters in the southwest London constituency, then prime minister Boris Johnson made him a Tory peer in the House of Lords so he could keep his role as environment minister.

Lord Goldsmith retained a ministerial position under Rishi Sunak but quit in June in protest at the government’s position on climate change.

The barbed resignation came days after being named in the partygate interference report, which investigated attempts to undermine the Privileges Committee’s investigation into whether Mr Johnson misled parliament over the scandal.

Since then Lord Goldsmith has claimed the Conservatives don’t have an answer on “the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced” – the climate crisis, and said he is even tempted to vote for Labour at the next general election.