Labour considers stance on green issues after Ulez-linked Uxbridge lost | Labour

Labour is debating its pitch to the electorate as it considers how to navigate controversy over environmental policies that some have warned could dent the party’s chances of winning the next general election.

Labour leader Keir Starmer plans to address the party’s national policy forum in Nottingham, where members and affiliated groups are meeting up to discuss what should be in the Labour election manifesto.

It comes a day after Starmer urged the London mayor Sadiq Khan to “reflect” on the impact of extending the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) into Uxbridge and Ruislip, where Labour was unexpectedly defeated in a byelection on Thursday.

Both Conservative and Labour campaigners have attributed the narrow Conservative victory to Khan’s decision to expand Ulez – which charges drivers who use older, more polluting vehicles £12.50 a day to use their vehicles – to every London borough next month.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the party had lost by 495 votes in Uxbridge because it had failed to “listen to voters” over concerns about the expansion of Ulez, but environmentally minded Conservatives urged Rishi Sunak to hold firm on net zero commitments.

Despite the intensifying climate emergency, with world temperature records broken twice in the last week alone, the prime minister is facing calls from other Tories to rethink “very unpopular” green policies, such as the current plans to phase out gas boilers by 2035 and ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

One Tory cabinet minister told the Daily Telegraph: “It is about pace and practicality. This isn’t the area for pure ideology, it is an area for balance.” Another said: “There probably is a broader lesson that the Conservatives should stand for sensible approaches to net zero.”

Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, told the Daily Telegraph: “This is a wake-up call to warn politicians against anti-motorist policies across the entire country.

“We need to get the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars overturned at least until 2035, which is where most of the developed world is going.”

But Conservative Chris Skidmore, who led a recent net zero review of the UK’s climate goals, 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.”

Meanwhile, The Times reports that Sunak is preparing to launch an aggressive political campaign on crime, migrant boats and transgender rights in an attempt to drive down Labour’s lead in the polls.

The newspaper said the Conservative party is planning to focus on “divisive” issues, with the government said to be drawing up a series of policies for a crime and justice bill that will include tougher sentences for antisocial behaviour, fraud, burglary and robbery.

Sunak is also expected to press ahead with plans to change the Equality Act to introduce explicit protections for biological women in same-sex spaces such as changing rooms and hospital wards.