Rishi Sunak slammed as fake friend of motorists as potholes farce creates misery
"Inaction man” Rishi Sunak was blasted today for “posing” as a “friend of motorists”.
Labour said that between 2020 and 2023 - during in which he was either Chancellor or Prime Minister for all but four months - the road maintenance budget plunged by 24%. Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said it was “enough to fill 8.7 million potholes”. She added: “This giant Tory pothole lined up side by side would stretch from London to John O’Groats and back again.”
The PM is reportedly preparing to curb English councils from introducing new 20mph speed limits - days after the level was imposed in Wales. The Conservative leader plans to unveil the measure as part of a “plan for motorists” at next week’s Tory conference in Manchester.
He wants to limit local authorities’ powers to impose 20mph zones, restrict the number of hours a day that cars are banned from bus lanes, and scale back low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs). The plan also involves reducing the ability of local authorities to impose fines from traffic offences such as the misuse of yellow box junctions.
Mr Sunak pledged in July to crack down on "anti-motorist" policies following the Tories’ shock by-election victory in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, West London. The campaign was dominated by the row over London's ultra low emission zone (Ulez) expansion, spearheaded by Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan.
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But Ms Haigh said that “after 13 years of desperate failure, the Prime Minister’s words are just like our roads - full of holes”. She added: “Rishi Sunak desperately poses as the 'friend of motorists' but he cannot hide from 13 years of Tory failure which has hammered drivers. Petrol prices have soared, insurance costs rocketed and our roads are in a shocking state. Our 'inaction man' Prime Minister has delivered none of his promises to tackle Britain's pothole crisis.”
Mr Sunak was also criticised by the chief executives of six walking and cycling organisations. The bosses of the Bikeability Trust, British Cycling, Cycling UK, Living Streets, Ramblers and Sustrans said in a joint statement: "When ministers could be promoting public transport, cycling and walking as cheap sustainable options in a cost-of-living and climate crisis, they're entrenching congestion and reliance on driving for short, local journeys.
"When the Government could respect people's freedom to choose how they travel, it's removing the alternatives. This is a plan that looks no further than one way of travelling and will make the roads worse for those occasions when people do need to drive."
A Department for Transport source described reports of the plan as "speculation". Downing Street was approached for a comment. Earlier this month, Wales became the first UK nation to cut the default speed limit from 30mph to 20mph for restricted roads.
This came after Wales scrapped all major road building projects due to environmental concerns. Mr Sunak told ITV Wales this week: "I think imposing a blanket 20 mile-an-hour speed limit on areas is absolutely not right. It doesn't reflect people's priorities. People are dependent on their cars for their day-to-day journeys and these kind of blanket bans aren't the right, proportionate approach. But also it comes on top of this other policy not to build any new roads as well. You take these things together, it seems like an attack on motorists and that's rightly received the opposition that it deserves."
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