Springwatch host Chris Packham has urged The Labour Party to “stick to their guns” and continue in their expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone.
The 62-year-old wants Kier Starmer’s political party to go ahead with taxing the profits of companies who sell fossil fuels to help London motorists to switch to cleaner vehicles.
Recently speaking to Times Radio, the 62-year-old said: “My question is quite simple. The Labour Party are being asked, are you going to drop that part of your policy?
“What are you going to do? Do you want to grab short-term power and betray all of those children with asthma?”
He went on to question whether the party want to “protect humanity” and the “rest of life on Earth,” or if their campaign was just about “getting into office”.
“They’ve got to stick to their guns here,” he urged.
Elsewhere, Chris discussed finances and whether the bill for pollution controls should fall on businesses which are making a profit from the sale of fossil fuels.
He said: “The difficult question is, where are they going to get the money to pay for it?
“Because the people in poverty in London who can’t afford to switch their vehicles shouldn’t ought to be the people that pay.”
The TV host then called out companies such as Centrica, Shell, BP and ExxonMobil, who are all, “posting all of these record profits.”
“As a consequence of that, we need a government robust enough to stand up (and say), ‘We’re going to tax these people and we’re going to make sure that we subsidise a just transition through to a cleaner use of energy’,” he added.
The naturalists’ recent slam comes amid a debate involving the ULEZ expansion and whether it is to blame for Labour’s failure to win the recent Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.
Senior figures appeared to blame ULEZ — including Labour’s leader, Starmer, 60.
He told his party’s national policy forum on Saturday that he did not think there was “any doubt” that “ULEZ was the reason that we lost the election in Uxbridge.”
Furthermore, a source close to The Mayor of Sadiq Khan, reportedly said that Labour was “always going to struggle” to win Uxbridge, as the party hadn’t won the seat for five decades.
“It is a disappointing result and Sadiq has been clear he is listening to Londoners following this by-election. The mayor is always looking at ways he can address their concerns,” they added.
The Mayor of London introduced ULEZ in 2019 and saw the project being expanded in 2021.
In November 2022, Khan, 60, announced that ULEZ was expanding to all London boroughs from 29 August 2023.
The decision was subject to a judicial review and a hearing took place earlier this month.
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