Daylight robbery of motorists will spread to rest of UK if Labour wins, warns Susan Hall

If a man in a balaclava started demanding money from me, I would expect them to be part of a criminal gang. But in Sadiq Khan’s London, there is a good chance they’re one of his ULEZ enforcers. 

This week, we discovered that Sadiq Khan has sent out hired goons, explicitly told to wear balaclavas to hide their identity, to sit at the side of the roads with cameras and catch motorists who were unable to buy a new car. 

When I read about it, I did a double take. Surely the Mayor of London wasn’t sending masked men to enforce his ULEZ? I was shocked, as no doubt were countless Londoners, to find out he was. 

Their thuggish dress code is supposedly for safety reasons, following the unacceptable damage to ULEZ cameras. From where I’m standing, it looks nothing short of intimidating. 

It certainly doesn’t make Londoners feel safe, seeing Transport for London workers monitoring them late at night in a mugger’s uniform. 

These sinister, authoritarian tactics that Sadiq Khan has resorted to show that no bar is too low for him to stoop to. It shows just how far he is willing to go to make sure he gets as much of your money as possible from his shameless ULEZ tax grab. 

And it gets worse. In Harrow, where I live, Sadiq Khan has been taking money from people who never even entered his ULEZ zone.  

The Mayor’s office stuck up a ULEZ camera pointing at a road outside the boundary, hitting nearly a thousand motorists. Only this week, when they were called out, did they back down and reluctantly hand back the cash.  In Camden, the cruelty of Sadiq Khan and his Labour mates was laid bare yesterday.  

The Labour council is plotting to take money from those with non-compliant cars who have given up driving, unable to pay Sadiq Khan his £12.50 a day. Their plan: a new charge for not driving your car. 

This so-called ‘Air Quality Surcharge’ is being planned for residents and visitors who park their vehicle in Camden, charging up to £6.86 per day for visitors and £279.40 per year for residents.  

This is the same Labour council that one Danny Beales, of Uxbridge infamy, sits on. Danny, who U-turned on his seven-year support of ULEZ once polling day in the Uxbridge by-election loomed, sits on a council that wants to impose an additional charge in his own backyard.

It seems that yet again, Labour says one thing, and does the other, all the time dipping their hands into Londoners’ pockets.  And that is not to mention the time TfL has quietly spent building ULEZ 2.0, a pay-per-mile road user charging scheme that would make everyone pay more whether they are compliant or not. 

This is nothing short of daylight robbery. It has started here in London and will spread to the rest of the country if Labour gets the chance. It must stop. 

I am running to be Mayor of London so that we can put an end to this nonsense and get London moving again.  As Mayor, I will stop the ULEZ expansion on day one. No ifs, no buts. 

I will instruct TfL to stop the tax cameras from charging people the moment the election result is declared. The balaclava’d bandits sitting in ULEZ camera vans will be sent packing. 

I will cancel all work on Sadiq Khan’s secret pay-per-mile scheme. And I will challenge local councils that rip off motorists and clutter our roads with unnecessary LTNs. 

Replacing the ULEZ expansion, I will set up a £50 million fund to target pollution hotspots.

This plan will reduce air pollution where it is, instead of taxing the poorest in our city. It is a fairer and better way of achieving the cleaner air that we all want. 

We have a responsibility to those who are least well off. They should not be used as a cash cow by Sadiq Khan, his Labour friends or anyone else. As Mayor, I will put things right. 

Susan Hall is the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London.