Peter Fortune MP's latest column in the News Shopper.
Labour is squeezing Bromley motorists. Driving charges in London can now cost up to £40 a day, but even more if you are a van driver. That's because Sadiq Khan has imposed a new toll on the Blackwall Tunnel this month — ending over a century of free crossings.
For cars crossing at peak times, the toll will cost them £8 a day for a trip across the river and back. But for van drivers, the bill will be £13. That's on top of Labour's expanded Ulez and the congestion charge, fuel costs and parking charges. It's becoming simply impossible for people to drive to work in London, impacting everyone reliant on driving, from tradesmen to NHS workers on shifts.
The opening of the Silvertown Tunnel is welcome, as is the news that the Lower Thames Crossing has been approved. The idea of tolls to pay for new infrastructure makes sense. But the Blackwall Tunnel is hardly new; it's 128 years old. And as we know, once tolls are introduced, they don't stop. The Dartford Crossing was paid for two decades ago, but Labour kept the toll.
There's now only one free crossing east of Tower Bridge at Rotherhithe. But how long will Sadiq Khan keep it free? It's also been over a decade since the Dart Charge was increased. But it's easy to see a financially irresponsible Labour government increasing it to raise more money. There's also the elephant in the room: Sadiq Khan's plan for pay-per-mile road charging.
As a London Assembly Member, I worked to expose Mayor Khan's preparations for road pricing in London, which London Centric fully exposed late last year. Under Labour's plans, motorists could be charged 40p per mile for driving in Outer London, 60p per mile in Inner London, and £2 per mile with a £5 fee for Central London.
This would be hugely damaging for communities like Bromley and Biggin Hill, where people are highly reliant on cars. Speaking to Labour politicians across the capital in Parliament and previously in City Hall, they don't understand what life is like in a London suburb.
We don't have the London Underground or District Light Railway. Biggin Hill doesn't even have a train station, much to the surprise of one Labour figure who I recently debated on the BBC's Politics London.
But this is exactly the sort of thing that a Labour government would be tempted to introduce, either in cities or nationally. After all, Sadiq Khan's former Deputy Mayor for Transport, Heidi Alexander, who oversaw the initial expansion of Ulez, is now the Secretary of State for Transport.
If the economy continues to slow under Labour's tax rises and red tape —which will cost employers over £1,000 a year more per employee — they'll look to Sadiq Khan's anti-motorist policies to raise money. As your MP, I'll be fighting to ensure they do not use driving charges to squeeze more money from working people locally.
