Former minister Lord Zac Goldsmith banned from driving after speeding four times

Published

2 years ago

January 11, 2024

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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.

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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.

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.

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Heidi Alexander says ‘fairness’ will be government’s ‘guiding principle’ when it comes to taxes at next budget

Published

12 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Heidi Alexander says 'fairness' will be government's 'guiding principle' when it comes to taxes at next budget

Another hint that tax rises are coming in this autumn’s budget has been given by a senior minister.

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government’s failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs.

Trevor Phillips asked specifically if tax rises were discussed among the cabinet last week – including on an away day on Friday.

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Tax increases were not discussed “directly”, Ms Alexander said, but ministers were “cognisant” of the challenges facing them.

Asked what this means, Ms Alexander added: “I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn’t recognise that at the budget, the chancellor will need to look at the OBR forecast that is given to her and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out.

“We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.”

Ms Alexander said she wouldn’t comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: “So, the chancellor will set her budget. I’m not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.

“When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.”

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Afterwards, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Phillips: “That sounds to me like a barely disguised reference to tax rises coming in the autumn.”

He then went on to repeat the Conservative attack lines that Labour are “crashing the economy”.

Mr Philp then attacked the prime minister as “weak” for being unable to get his welfare reforms through the Commons.

Discussions about potential tax rises have come to the fore after the government had to gut its welfare reforms.

Sir Keir had wanted to change Personal Independence Payments (PIP), but a large Labour rebellion forced him to axe the changes.

With the savings from these proposed changes – around £5bn – already worked into the government’s sums, they will now need to find the money somewhere else.

The general belief is that this will take the form of tax rises, rather than spending cuts, with more money needed for military spending commitments, as well as other areas of priority for the government, such as the NHS.