Labour’s manifesto is short on pledges regarding motoring. We explore the policies left-of-centre think-tanks and lobbyists will be pushing for, if the party wins
Graham Hope
BY July 5, the votes will have been cast and counted, with current polling pointing to a sizeable Labour majority in parliament after 14 years of Conservative rule.
But what will a swing to the left mean for Britain’s tens of millions of motorists? Labour’s 2024 manifesto offer to drivers stretches to not much more than filling in a few extra potholes, and a vague promise to look at unfair insurance prices. They’ll also bring the ban on new petrol and diesel cars forward again to 2030, but there’s nothing on touchy topics such as road pricing, reducing traffic numbers, or fuel duty, all of which have been part of the left’s ‘progressive’ agenda for years.
So, given the general consensus that Labour is on the way to a landslide, should we be more concerned by what the party isn’t telling drivers about the years ahead?
The fact is, while Sir Keir Starmer and his colleagues have not been overtly vocal about their intentions should they make it into Downing Street, the issues above are being widely debated and discussed across the political sphere in general, and the Labour movement in particular.
As journalist Chaminda Jayanetti identified in an article published in September 2023 for CivilServiceWorld.com entitled: “The new wonkocracy: Who are the think tanks shaping Labour policy?”, there’s a growing army of groups and organisations formulating and sharing ideas in preparation for Starmer’s potential coronation.
Independent
One of these groups identified by Jayanetti is the Resolution Foundation, which describes itself as an “independent think tank focused on improving the living standards of those on low-to-middle incomes”.
In June last year, as part of its Economy 2030 Inquiry – a project devised to plot a new economic strategy for Britain – it published “When The Rubber Hits The Road”, a report that looked into how motoring taxation should be overhauled in the transition to net zero.
With the percentage of electric vehicles on the road on the increase, it says that existing methods of taxation promise to leave an annual black hole of £10billion in the early 2030s that threatens to stretch to £30billion a year within three decades. On top of that, it predicts cheaper EV motoring will see traffic numbers rise by a quarter by 2050.
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