Sir Keir Starmer has said the Labour party must have been doing something “very wrong” over the controversial Ulez expansion policy after their loss in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection.
In a speech at the national policy forum in Nottingham on Saturday, the Labour leader said that despite the party’s success at the Selby and Ainsty byelection, their loss in Uxbridge and South Ruislip showed that there “is still a long way to go”.
Starmer added: “We are doing something very wrong if policies put forward by the Labour party end up on each and every Tory leaflet. We’ve got to face up to that and learn the lessons.”
Starmer’s comments comes a day after he urged Sadiq Khan to “reflect” on the impact of extending Ulez into Uxbridge and Ruislip, where Labour was unexpectedly defeated in a byelection on Thursday.
Both Conservative and Labour campaigners have attributed the narrow Tory victory to London mayor’s decision to expand the capital’s ultra low-emission zone (Ulez) – which charges drivers who use older, more polluting vehicles £12.50 a day to use their vehicles – to every borough next month.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the party had lost by 495 votes in Uxbridge because it had failed to “listen to voters” over concerns about the expansion of Ulez, but environmentally minded Conservatives urged Rishi Sunak to hold firm on net zero commitments.
Despite the intensifying climate emergency, with world temperature records broken twice in the last week alone, the prime minister is facing calls from other Tories to rethink “very unpopular” green policies, such as the current plans to phase out gas boilers by 2035 and ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
One Tory cabinet minister told the Daily Telegraph: “It is about pace and practicality. This isn’t the area for pure ideology, it is an area for balance.” Another said: “There probably is a broader lesson that the Conservatives should stand for sensible approaches to net zero.”
Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, told the Daily Telegraph: “This is a wake-up call to warn politicians against anti-motorist policies across the entire country.
“We need to get the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars overturned at least until 2035, which is where most of the developed world is going.”
But Conservative Chris Skidmore, who led a recent net zero review of the UK’s climate goals, said: “It helps no one in politics if we are not honest about the reality of pollution in our cities and the health consequences of this, but we also need to be honest about what investments are needed to deliver policies with public support.
“This was what the net zero review very clearly set out: we need long-term investment to encourage private sector investment and to create a just transition by establishing the effective incentives to decarbonise.”
Meanwhile, The Times reports that Sunak is preparing to launch an aggressive political campaign on crime, migrant boats and transgender rights in an attempt to drive down Labour’s lead in the polls.
The newspaper said the Conservative party is planning to focus on “divisive” issues, with the government said to be drawing up a series of policies for a crime and justice bill that will include tougher sentences for antisocial behaviour, fraud, burglary and robbery.
Sunak is also expected to press ahead with plans to change the Equality Act to introduce explicit protections for biological women in same-sex spaces such as changing rooms and hospital wards.