Ministers should fund ‘proper scrappage scheme’ for Ulez, says Starmer

Labour leader backs mayor’s call for Londoners to get more money to replace vehicles, as party tries to limit electoral fallout

Keir Starmer has backed Sadiq Khan’s call for the government to “put money behind” a more generous scrappage scheme to help Londoners upgrade older vehicles as the party seeks to limit the electoral fallout of the policy.

The Labour leader said that ministers should help fund a “proper scrappage scheme” for owners of more polluting cars affected by the London mayor’s plans to expand the clean air zone, as they have done for similar schemes in Bristol and Birmingham.