LONDON MAYOR SEEKS RE-ELECTION AMIDST FIERY REVOLT OVER ROAD TAX THAT’S TAKEN AN UGLY TURN
By SHAMLAL PURI in London
Senior Editor – UK and Associate Publisher
A guerilla war of a kind has been taking place in the usually quiet streets of London since last summer, and its embers are still burning this year as campaigning for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly Elections heats up.
The local government election will be held on Thursday, May 2, and the incumbent Mayor of London since 2016, the amiable Sadiq Khan, has put his name for re-election.
The Mayor is in office for four years, after which there is another election.
However, a challenging roadblock could lead to his loss this year.
There’s a short, sharp, shocking reminder of the battles of last summer when he imposed a tax to control the dangers of dark clouds of climate emissions caused by motorists in the capital, which angered Londoners. They will vote in these elections.
He extended the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to all 32 boroughs of Greater London last year, which won him few friends and ample trophies of abuse from angry Londoners.
Mr Khan is contesting his re-election against a motley of candidates, mainly Susan Mary Hall from the Tory Party and other rival parties who may be there only as vote spoilers to block Mr Khan’s victory juggernaut.
The Green Party nominated Hackney borough councillor Zoë Garbett, the Liberal Democrats nominated Rob Blackie, and Reform UK nominated Howard Cox.
Others Are Femy Amin, Animal Welfare Party – People, Animals, Environment, Count Binface for Mayor of London, Amy Gallagher, Social Democratic Party, Tarun Ghulati, Andreas Christoffi Michli, Natalie Denise Campbell, all three Independent,
Others are Brian Benedict Rose London Real Party – Transform London and Nick Britain Scanlon First – No to Immigration.
The Mayor has many responsibilities, including Education, Housing, Planning applications for new structures, strategic planning to run the capital’s facilities efficiently, transport planning, passenger transport, highways connecting London, and Police and Fire services.
London’s public transport system – the underground, buses operated by Transport for London (TfL), and generally ensuring the city’s roads are congestion-free to allow Londoners to go about with their daily routines unhindered is the responsibility of the office of the Mayor.
Londoners also must pay a separate Congestion Charge when they drive through designated areas in the heart of the capital.
Mr Khan is weighed down by what Londoners see as a draconian action that he took to raise taxes.
The world’s first 24-hour Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) tax hit Londoners for a sixer. Call it a toll tax by any name; motorists must fork out money to drive through parts of London.
What is ULEZ?
To help clear London’s air, ULEZ operates 24 hours, seven days a week, every day of the tear except on Christmas Day.
Those who drive vehicles that don’t meet the ULKEZ emissions standards have to pay £12.50 (US$15.88) daily charge to drive within the ULEZ zone.
If motorists work daily throughout the year, as some do, their annual ULEZ will total £4,550 per vehicle, assuming they pay daily and there is no price increase.
The tax applies to cars, motorcycles, vans, and specialist vehicles, up to 3.5 tonnes and minibuses, up to 5 tonnes.
Owners of foreign-registered vehicles that do not meet the ULEZ standards must also pay the daily charge to drive through London.
It seemed Londoners were, in a way, not bothered about the ULEZ being imposed in central London just as the congestion charge to relieve traffic snarl-ups in the heart of the city, but what incensed them was the Mayor’s decision to extend the ULEZ charge zone throughout Greater London, where most Londoners live.
The Mayor of London has installed hundreds of ULEZ cameras to track down polluting vehicles and motorists who drive through the zone without paying the £12.50 daily charge.
This additional taxation adds to the curse of rising taxes that are making a big hole in the wallets of the city’s residents, who are already struggling against all odds against the cost-of-living crisis.
The Mayoral election is being fought in the background of the continuing fight between Londoners and the Mayor, who is accused of insensitivity in introducing these taxes.
The introduction of ULEZ sparked angry protests, and Londoners took to the streets, resulting in mayhem and serious damage to the street furniture.
The Mayor’s decision to extend the ULEZ zone from central London to Greater London seems to have raised frayed tempers, encompassing nearly every Londoner with an environmentally unfriendly car driven through the streets.
The Mayor installed ULEZ cameras throughout London, and angry mobs took to the streets to protest this unwanted charge.
Mobs turned violent and smashed the cameras at night, leaving behind carcasses of what was meant to be an orderly introduction of the charge to all motorists who filed to comply with ULEZ requirements. Protesters used chainsaws to cut or strength to pull out and dislodge the cameras.
Between 200 and 300 people used to gather in groups to protest.
Mayor Sadiq Khan became the city’s enemy number and a hated figure. His detractors reared their heads, condemning him and his failures as the city’s Mayor.
An angry Sadiq Khan condemned ULEZ protestors, calling them “far-right, Covid deniers and Tories”.
Speaking at a meeting in West London, where demonstrators had gathered outside, Mr Khan said the protestors holding placards that not only protested the ULEZ but also depicted the Mayor in a derogatory way, including the image of Swastika and a hammer and sickle symbol politically seen as fascism.
The atmosphere at that meeting was toxic. The Tories were pushing their agenda aggressively and politicising ULEZ.
In fairness, it must be said that London’s Labour Mayor, Ken Livingstone, introduced the Low Emission Zone in February 2008 to charge heavy diesel vehicles that failed to meet minimum standards for emission polluting the London air and not Sadiq Khan. But few of today’s protesters recall that as that is consigned to history.
When the Tories waded into power, the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, polished Livingstone’s idea by announcing the creation of ULEZ in July 2014 when he was the Mayor of London. ULEZ was confirmed in March 2015 after consultations, and it was backed by the then Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron (now Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron), who agreed to provide funding for its implementation.
Now, the Conservatives or the Tories are condemning ULEZ, their creation, which defies logic.
Mayor Sadiq Khan only moved it forward!
The ULEZ riots, Labour supporters suspect, were inspired, if not instigated, by the Tories to undermine the Labour Mayor.
Last year’s protests were sparked after Mayor Khan announced the expansion of the ULEZ scheme to greater London from August 29, 2023. This was the last straw for the Londoners who took to the streets.
Though Mr Khan described them as right-wingers and Tories, many objected to that labelling. His supporters called the protesters vandals.
The protesters said they were not vandals but London’s poor fighting against what they described as blatantly wrong and blocking the authority from tyranny.
Many Londoners describe the demonstrations against ULEZ and the consequent damage to the cameras as a “legal self-defence of fundamental rights.” He urged the public to keep tearing down those ULEZ cameras and refuse to comply. These people are patriots, not vandals or “freedom fighters”.
Some demonstrators described the smashing of ULEZ cameras as people exerting their rights. One angry Londoner said the cameras weren’t vandalised by “morally decommissioned.” Adding the idea of ULEZ was nonsense.
Though the authorities saw the vandalism as an act of criminals, the public thought otherwise, describing them as “heroes.”
Angry Londoner Simon said, “Sadiq Khan must be voted out as soon as possible; he’s the worst of the worst.”
Another Londoner said the ULEZ scheme is poorly planned, using emissions as an excuse to scam people, the poorest in the society, to in Transport for London’s budget caused by the office of the Mayor. The buck rests with Sadiq Khan. It’s nothing short of a scandal!
A trader who operates in London, driving a heavily polluting car, finds the ULEZ payment of £12.50 laughable. He says he can enter the zone and pollute the air, but how will they get rid of that pollution?
These voters could haemorrhage Labour’s vote for the Mayor of London.
Mr Khan has become a much-maligned figure among Tory supporters who blame him for all the ills afflicting London. He has walked through a gauntlet of jeering Londoners who blame him for all the ills afflicting London.
They accuse him of not fulfilling his promises on vital issues like housing and public transport, forgetting that the Government of the day has an equal share in taking the blame and not giving the London Authority the resources it needs to efficiently run the city’s affairs. But Labour supporters and the party leadership admire his determination to fight on.
The ULEZ backlash began when Mr Khan extended the zone to cover greater Londo. Protesters gathered in central London, condemning Mr Khan over his move.
On the first day of introducing the London-wide ULEZ, vandals targeted 14 cameras on a single road in south-east London. Only two of the newly installed cameras survived.
Over 300 ULERZ cameras were vandalised or stolen in four months as the introduction of the London-wide ULEZ neared, inflicting a heavy loss to taxpayers.
The protesters severed cables, covered lenses in red paint, ruined electronics sprayed with foam and devices blocked by a card box so it could not read the number plates of cars.
It showed how incensed Londoners were about what they said were unacceptable charges.
Police stepped in and vowed to stamp out the protests amidst the Mayor defending the ULEZ fiercely defending it, saying it was essential for good health.
And he was acting to tackle London’s toxic air and prevent London’s children from growing up with defective lungs.
Metropolitan Police vowed to use its resources to protect the ULEZ expansion amidst fears that the protests would spike throughout London.
Advocates counter that it is needed to improve air quality and help meet targets in the UK and Europe. In many British cities, including all London boroughs, air pollution far exceeds the limits the World Health Organization recommends.
The May 2 Mayoral and London Assembly elections are being held under these circumstances.
Many believe that Sadiq Khan will lose to the Conservative contender Susan Hall, but others believe that since the tide is turning against the Conservatives and Rishi Sunak’s Government. Labour has a strong chance of winning the General Election, now being touted around the end of January 2025—the current low poll ratings of the Tories may benefit Sadiq Khan in the May 2 elections.
Mayor Sadiq Khan is a tough man. He knows what to do and will not buckle down to threats.
Whether that will make him victorious is yet to be seen.