Sadiq Khan v James Cleverly: Tory's Ulez attacks would be 'poison' to key voters in London Mayor race

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Sadiq Khan v James Cleverly: Tory’s Ulez attacks would be ‘poison’ to key voters in London Mayor raceEx-Home Secretary Sir James has suggested he may scale back the controversial air quality scheme if he gains the keys to City Hall

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Nicholas Cecil, Chief Reporter @nicholascecil1 minute ago

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Sir James Cleverly has been warned that proposing to tear up the Ulez ultra low emission zone risks being ‘poison’ to key voters in the London mayoral contest.

The former Home Secretary has signalled he may scale back the controversial scheme, introduced by Lord Sadiq Khan in 2019, if he gains the keys to City Hall.

After quitting the shadow Cabinet to launch his bid for London Mayor, Sir James said: “There’s been a real war on the motorist.”

Sir James Cleverly resigned from the shadow Cabinet to run for Mayor of LondonPA Wire

“In Outer London, this really quite vindictive assault on drivers, both people that drive for family reasons and for people that drive for business, is causing real harm,” he added.

“So I want to look at a whole range of options to ease the costs and pressure of people getting around the city and doing business in the city.”

Lord Khan, pointing to research, argues that Ulez has delivered cleaner air for millions of people in the capital.

But the Conservatives have challenged the findings, particularly Ulez’s impact in Outer London in cutting air pollution.

In terms of the election for Mayor of London, a recent poll suggested Sir James would need to gain a large proportion of second preference Liberal Democrat votes to win.

It put Labour on 33% and the Green Party 14%, so a combined total of 47%.

Reform UK was in second place on 20%, opening up the prospect that the election run-off when second preference votes are counted, could be Laila Cunningham against Lord Khan or whoever is the Labour candidate.

Mayor of London Lord Sadiq Khan is expected to decide next year whether to seek a fourth term in City HallPA

The Tories were on 18%, making a joint total with Reform of 38%.

The Lib Dems were on 10%.

So for Sir James to get the backing of the majority of Londoners to win the mayoral election under the supplementary voting system he would almost certainly have to persuade a sizeable share of these Lib Dems voters to support him as their second preference contender.

“To win second preference votes from Liberal Democrats there are several issues where traditional centrist Conservative politics would be required,” Tony Travers, Professor in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics, told The Standard.

“Proposing to remove the ultra-low emission zone might help win back Reform voters in parts of Outer London but would be poison for many Lib Dems.

“Supporting the UK leaving the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) to reduce asylum seeking might win votes in Essex, but would be less attractive to many moderate London Tories.”

Former London Assembly member Sir James has told how, if selected as the Tory mayoral contender, he would seek to fight the contest on “classical” Conservative policies and as “an aspirational, entrepreneurial, forward-thinking Conservative candidate in tune with the city”.

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