THE PRIME Minister has ruled out offering any additional Government support for those affected by the London ULEZ expansion.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Mr Sunak said: “This is solely the responsibility of the Labour Party and the Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer.
“It’s for them to explain why they think this is the right thing to do and they should do that. I don’t think it’s the right priority.
“People have made their views very clear and now it’s up to them to explain themselves, and why they think this is the right thing to do.”
Mr Sunak also ruled out forcing businesses to accept cash payments during an exclusive interview with GB News’ political editor Christopher Hope
He told GB News: “Of course, we’re transitioning and using more electronic money and doing more things online. But cash is important to people, particularly in rural communities like the one I represent.
“The new laws that we’ve now passed will ensure that people are not more than three miles away from having access to cash, the regulator, the FCA will have new powers to find or compel banks to provide those services to people because we know how important they are.”
Asked by GB News political editor Christopher Hope if shops will be compelled to accept cash payments, Mr Sunak said: “People should have access to cash. It’s a different thing for the Government to start imposing on individual businesses how they should do their business. I don’t think that’s appropriate.
“But what we can do is regulate the financial services industry, so people do have access to cash themselves.”
On crime, he said: “What officers and police everywhere should be focused on is on tackling crime. That’s what the public expects of them and that’s what I expect of them.
“And I’ve been talking to police officers here today. That’s what they’re keen to deliver. And that’s why one of the things we’ve done recently is agree with the police that they will follow up all reasonable lines of inquiry, when thefts happen…
“Again, that’s what people would expect and especially now where there’s more technology, whether it’s GPS, or doorbell video, all of these things that can be given to the police, people will expect them to follow up on those things, and actually just catch criminals as well as tackling things like anti-social behaviour, which is why earlier this year we worked with the police and local authorities to announce a compelling anti-social behaviour plan.
“This is the type of crime that impacts too many communities up and down the country. And these are the bread and butter issues that the police should be focused, so not gestures like taking the knee.”
On a deadline tomorrow for moving some Afghan asylum seekers out of hotel accommodation, Mr Sunak said: “We’ve made very good progress on doing that. And it speaks to a broader challenge we have that at the moment.
“We’ve got the country spending millions of pounds a day to house illegal migrants in hotels. Now that’s not right. It’s simply unfair and not sustainable and we’re making very good progress towards that.
Asked about housing migrants on the Bibby Stockholm barge, he said: “We’re working through to make sure that it’s safe for people to go back on.
“As soon as all those checks and tests have been completed, we want to put people back on the barge because I don’t want our taxpayers to be spending millions of pounds housing people in hotels in their communities where we can find alternative sites.”
On the cost-of-living crisis, he said: “The most important thing I can do for the country and for every family is to bring down inflation. It’s inflation that is putting up the prices of things in shops is eating into people’s savings making them feel poor.
“I need to bring down inflation to help people fundamentally with the cost of living and our plan is working. The last couple of months of data show that inflation is coming down.
“If we stick to the plan, we will be able to deliver that for families.”
