Khan’s decision to block cars for Ukraine scheme ‘gobsmacking’
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Sadiq Khan has blocked a plan to send cars to Ukraine that would otherwise be scrapped under Ulez.
In a letter obtained by The Telegraph, the Mayor of London has said he will not allow the vehicles, which tend to be 4x4s and pick-up trucks, to be sent to the war zone, where they are desperately needed on the front line.
Under the London Ulez scheme, motorists are able to claim a one-off payment of £2,000 if they scrap a vehicle that does not comply with the controversial pollution levy.
If they instead keep their non-compliant vehicles – most diesel cars registered before September 2015 and petrol cars registered before January 2006 – they must pay a daily charge of £12.50.
In September, Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, wrote to Mr Khan after noting the UK’s scrappage scheme, proposing that some of the vehicles be donated to Ukraine. He said the move would have “enormous potential” and be used in a “variety of life-saving and transport roles”.
But this week, Mr Khan wrote to Mr Klitschko to say he would not allow the proposal because it did not meet the “legal threshold” that requires the Ulez scrappage scheme to benefit Londoners from an “economic, social and environmental perspective”.
Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate for mayor of London, criticised Mr Khan’s decision, telling The Telegraph: “Sadiq Khan’s refusal to send scrapped Ulez cars to Ukraine, citing a legal quirk, is absurd.
“Londoners who choose to scrap their cars should have the freedom to decide for themselves if they want their car sent to support Ukraine.
“Standing with Ukraine against tyrants like Putin is not only a moral imperative but also in the best interest of all Londoners and the global community.”
Sources close to Ms Hall said that if she became mayor she would seek to change the law so that Ukraine could receive the vehicles.
Richard Lofthouse, who works with Car for Ukraine, a volunteer initiative that delivers 4x4s and trucks to the front line, said Mr Khan had shown a “lack of political courage”.
“Presumably it’s no bad thing and no ‘disbenefit’ for Londoners to actually show solidarity with another free state fighting tyranny, rather than only line the greedy pockets of private scrapyard merchants who are receiving thousands of perfectly good cars as the result of the scrappage scheme subsidy,” he said.
The unpopularity of Ulez – which Labour blamed for its failure to win the Uxbridge by-election earlier this year – is thought to have led to Mr Khan expanding the scrappage scheme.
Mr Khan’s letter, dated Dec 12, was sent in response to Mr Klitschko’s letter in September.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, volunteers from organisations such as Car for Ukraine have been driving donated 4x4s and larger vehicles to the war zone for soldiers on the front line.
Once inside the country, the vehicles are painted with camouflage, fitted with machine-gun or rocket launchers, and used for everything from fighting to retrieving casualties.
In March, RAC research suggested that nearly 700,000 cars registered in Greater London were Ulez non-compliant.
Last month, Transport for London apologised to motorists whose applications for the scrappage scheme were taking too long amid increased demand.
Senior Tory MPs said Mr Khan’s decision to block the initiative was “outrageous”. Gareth Johnson, the MP for Dartford who introduced a private members’ Bill to overturn the Ulez expansion, said: “Both London and the rest of the world will benefit from stopping tyrants like Putin succeeding in his aggressive actions.
“I am gobsmacked. The vast majority of Londoners would want to see vehicles that can help the people of Ukraine in their difficult time. This is bureaucracy gone mad and it’s an astonishing decision by Sadiq Khan.
“Anything that helps the people of Ukraine benefits all of us. It’s basic humanity to help Ukraine and pass on these cars and he is refusing to do so.”
Sir John Redwood, a former Tory Cabinet minister, said: “This is yet another reason why Ulez is an extremely bad scheme, not just for London, but the wider world. The mayor is making life impossible for many people. We shouldn’t stop people donating cars to good causes.”
Mr Khan’s letter set out how the Ulez scrappage scheme had been drawn up to “provide environmental benefits to Londoners”.
He said that if cars were exported to Ukraine then the scheme “would not meet the legal threshold of demonstrating the benefit to Londoners from an economic, social or environmental perspective”.
Government sources pointed to the Greater London Authority (GLA) Act 1999, which Mr Khan appears to be indicating in his objection, as having been passed by a Labour government under Tony Blair.
The London Mayor added that the scheme was “designed to ensure the most polluting vehicles are permanently removed from London’s roads”.
However, Chris Pool, a former lawyer and co-founder of Liberty Trucks Ukraine, which has delivered 350 trucks and ambulances from the UK to the front line, said: “It would seem to us that sending a car to Ukraine has equal benefit to Londoners as scrapping it.
“In fact, the scheme would encourage more owners to participate and would likely result in a larger number of non-compliant vehicles being removed from London’s roads. That is the whole point of the scrappage scheme, and surely would be of benefit to every Londoner.”
A City Hall spokesman said that “altering the Ulez scheme for the purposes of exporting vehicles to Ukraine is not possible within the current limits of the GLA Act”. The spokesman insisted the authority stood in solidarity with Ukraine.
