General election: Labour will revert ban on petrol and diesel-powered car sales to 2030, if elected

March 15, 2024 by

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Last year, the current Conservative government postponed the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel-powered cars from 2030 to 2035, but Labour has said that if successful at the General Election on 4th July, it will change it back to 2030.

If it wins the General Election on 4th July, Labour’s Bill Esterson MP, the Shadow Minister for Transport (Roads) has previously confirmed that, if elected, the deadline for the ban of the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered cars will be moved back to 2030. 

Last September, the current Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, postponed the deadline from 2030 to 2035 as part of “a new approach to achieving net zero”. He said the original ban would: “impose unacceptable costs on hard-pressed British families”, and that the government could “adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero which eases the burden on working people”.

The 2030 deadline had been introduced in 2020 to stimulate the transition to electric vehicles in order for the UK to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

Ford UK criticised the date being postponed and released a statement urging the government to re-think this decision, saying: “This is the biggest industry transformation in over a century and the UK 2030 target is a vital catalyst to accelerate Ford into a cleaner future. Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three.”  

The current Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP says the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is “how we decarbonise the transport sector” and that the government was “working at pace with the chargepoint sector”, “getting the barriers out the way to speed up the process” and “doing everything to increase consumer confidence” in EVs.

Following the announcement of the General Election on 4th July, Carwow will be investigating the manifesto of each political party standing for election to see what they promise that will impact on UK motorists.

See Also
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