The Labour conference has been circled by a motorists’ group demanding that Sir Keir Starmer’s party ends its war on motorists.
With massive mobile signs saying “just stop Labour’s war on motorists” members of the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) have been demanding changes in Labour policies.
The anger has come over Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the Ultra Low Emmission Zone ( ULEZ) in London costs thousands of drivers £12.50 per day and up to around £4,500 a year.
There is also fury over Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford’s imposition of 20mph speed limits and ban on building new roads.
Added to that Labour councils are preventing people from driving from their homes with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs).
Bob Bull, chairman of the Alliance of British Drivers, said: “Labour has a track record for making motorists lives a misery.
“ULEZ in London and 20mph in Wales are deeply unpopular, yet Sadiq Khan and Mark Drakeford carried on regardless.
“More than half of Red Wall voters back Rishi Sunak’s plan to delay a ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2035 – and only a quarter support Labour’s pledge to reintroduce the 2030 deadline.
“It is time the Labour Party listened to the public and ended their war on motorists.”
It comes as new figures reveal that voters in the former Labour Red Wall seats support Rishi Sunak abandoning a ban on diesel and petrol vehicles in 2030.
The polling carried out for the ABD underlines that voters do not want a ban, especially in areas Labour lost to the Tories in 2019.
More than half of eligible voters in Red Wall seats (53 per cent) say they support Rishi Sunak’s decision to slow the path to net zero carbon emissions by delaying the petrol and diesel car ban to 2035.
Only one in five people (19 per cent) oppose the Prime Minister’s move with the remainder saying that they don’t mind either way or don’t know.
But support for Sir Keir Starmer’s backing for 2030 is slight, with only one in four (27 per cent) saying the Labour leader is right to stick to the original, earlier deadline.
One in five (22 per cent) want Mr Sunak to go further, saying that they want the ban scrapped altogether.
The survey, conducted by pollsters Redfield and Wilton Strategies for the Alliance of British Drivers, reveals widespread hostility to the demise of conventionally-powered vehicles.
More than half of Red Wall voters (51 per cent) say that the Government should permit the sale of new cars that rely on carbon-free synthetic fuel rather than petrol and diesel.
The same number (51 per cent) agree with the statement that there is a “war on motorists” going on, with fewer than one in five (17 per cent) expressing disagreement.
Mr Bull said: “The truth is we don’t need this meddling by ministers. They should let the market decide when and if electric cars become the norm. Motorists should be free to stick with petrol and diesel cars if they wish and free to switch to an electric vehicle when the technology, especially range and the availability of charging points, persuades them that it is time for a change.
“The same should apply to LTNs and so-called clean air zones. If local residents don’t want them they should be free to tell the council so and get them removed from their neighbourhood.”
