SADIQ Khan’s planned ULEZ expansion is simply a tax on hard-working Londoners, according to Tory mayoral hopeful Susan Hall.
She told GB News she backed the goal of net zero carbon emissions but opposed extending ULEZ.
“Well, it is a good ambition to do it by 2030. I don’t know that we’ll get there. We’ve got to because we’ve seen climate change. We’ve got to do what we can. Having said that there’s lots of problems along the way,” she said.
“With regard to the Ulez expansion, Sadiq Khan’s own analysis shows that it won’t make virtually any difference at all, but it will do to hardworking taxpayers in London. It is just nothing but a tax rate on London.”
She told Camilla Tominey: “You don’t have to have the ULEZ expansion. I’d leave the original ULEZ in place because central London does have an air problem, an air quality problem. But if you look at the policies that Sadiq Khan’s putting in now with it – just take Park Lane and that cycle lane. All that’s done is made traffic back up.
Ms Hall denied that she was anti-cycling: “I said just take that one as an example. We’ve got the park next to it. All that one has done is made traffic back up. I read a really interesting statistic the other day that for every minute a car is idling, it could fill up 150 balloons worth of fumes…
“If you look at the ULEZ expansion, I found £50 million in an environmental fund for different councils to bid into to look at if there’s little pockets or hotspots I call them, hotspots of air pollution. They could bid into that fund to see how they can fix that little area.
“If you look at the massive area of the ULEZ expansion. It’s ridiculous, it’s not needed. And I’ve knocked on doors all the time. You can imagine that, I’m a politician – people are incensed about this.”
Asked if her bid was really a lost cause, as she has no donors backing her, she said: “I’m certainly never a lost cause, absolutely not. I haven’t asked for backing so far. I’ve relied on grassroots members because I have been working in the party for well over 25 years and I’ve got support there.
“I have got lots of people that have come up to me and said if you get the nomination, do come and talk to me. I will, but I’ve done this on a shoestring. I’ve got friends that are helping me.”
