24 Sep Labour Chair Anneliese Dodds points finger of blame at government for ULEZ expansion
THE Chair of the Labour Party Anneliese Dodds has appeared to blame the ULEZ expansion on the government.
Speaking to GB News, this morning, Ms Dodds said: “It was the Conservative Government which said that different local areas needed to impose charging schemes.
“What they didn’t do in London was listen to what the Mayor was saying, which was that he needed more support to deliver a bigger scrappage scheme.
“He delivered the biggest scrappage scheme he possibly could, but he didn’t have support that was available, for example, Birmingham, and I would say that that’s the difference really, with Labour.”
“There was no government mandate for Sadiq Khan to implement the expansion,” he added.
“Grant Shapps wrote to the mayor and said the charging scheme for what his government were proposing was proposing and I think that was completely clear at the time.”
“Labour has said it’s important that we listened to people at the moment in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.
“But as I said the mayor was absolutely clear: He believed there should have been more support going to the scrappage scheme.
“He made it as big as he possibly could. But the Conservative government wasn’t listening, and I think that’s a big problem, because actually, we need to make sure we’re supporting people during a cost-of-living crisis, and at the same time, we’re protecting clean air.”
“It’s in black and white in a letter that Grant Shapps sent to him: It’s very, very clear. And as I said, Labour’s approach to these issues is different because we believe that actually, at the same time, as seeking to protect the environment, we need to be dealing with the cost-of-living places and getting costs down for families.”
