Environmentally minded Conservatives have urged Rishi Sunak to hold firm on net zero commitments after others in the party used their unexpected win in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection to call for an end to “very unpopular” green policies. While the controversial expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) was seen as a factor in the Tories holding on to Boris Johnson’s former seat by 495 votes over Labour, on a night when the party was defeated in two other byelections, the Conservative Environment Network (CEN) said this did not reflect the politics of wider green issues. Chris Skidmore, the Conservative MP who led a recent net zero review of the UK’s climate goals, said that although the Uxbridge byelection had become “a micro-referendum” on the Ulez expansion, the policy was irrelevant in terms of a general election.
The Ulez scheme, under which drivers of older, polluting cars are charged £12.50 a day to use their vehicle within the designated zone, was planned by Johnson when he was mayor of London, and implemented by his Labour successor, Sadiq Khan. The scheme originally covered only central London, before Khan expanded it to the north and south circular roads. From the end of next month, it will also include every London borough, including outer areas such as Uxbridge, where car use is more prevalent and public transport less concentrated. David Frost, the Tory peer and former Brexit negotiator who has long argued against environmental policies, said his party’s narrow success in Uxbridge, meant the Conservatives should push back on net zero commitments.
“The lesson is surely that green policies are very unpopular when there’s a direct cost to people – as indeed all the polling says,” he tweeted. “This time that hit Labour. But soon it could be us unless we rethink heat pumps and the 2030 electric car deadline.” Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary and another Tory critic of net zero targets, told the BBC that the lesson of Uxbridge was “high-cost green policies are not popular” and the party should delay moves on phasing out new petrol and diesel vehicles. Sam Hall, the director of the CEN, which has about 150 Conservative MPs and peers as supporters, said: “Environmental policies are an electoral asset when they are fair, affordable, and deliver for people and their communities. “I’d warn Conservatives against listening to calls to ditch environmental commitments following the Uxbridge result. Insulating people’s homes, building more renewables, and attracting investment into new clean industries are popular, bill-cutting and job-creating.” Skidmore, a former energy minister, said: “The reality is that the politics of protest will always be a key feature of byelections: indeed, that’s why polling experts refuse to read much into them.”
He said that while there were problems with the expansion of Ulez, notably the limited extent of schemes to help people replace older cars, it was a Johnson plan, with the move agreed by the government in May 2020 as part of a deal on Covid-period loans to Khan. Skidmore said: “It helps no one in politics if we are not honest about the reality of pollution in our cities and the health consequences of this, but we also need to be honest about what investments are needed to deliver policies with public support. “This was what the net zero review very clearly set out: we need long-term investment to encourage private sector investment and to create a just transition by establishing the effective incentives to decarbonise.” The Uxbridge result has also called ructions within Labour, whose defeated candidate for the seat, Danny Beales, did not back the Ulez expansion, with the party’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, saying after the result that the party should “listen to the voters”. Any sign of a wider pushback against Labour’s green policies would face a significant fightback, both from Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, and green-minded party members.