Going backwards fast

Something quite strange happened in London last month - the Conservative Party won a by-election.

- ANDREW ANTHONY

It was very close, just a few hundred votes in it, and it was Boris Johnson's relatively safe old seat of Uxbridge. But still, it was a surprise because the Tories couldn't be more unpopular in the capital if they outlawed alcohol and privatised the air that Londoners breathe.

So, how did they win? By campaigning against the drive by London's Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, to clean the city's polluted (if still free) air. Khan has created a socalled ultra low emission zone in central London, within which older, heavily polluting vehicles will have to pay a daily charge to operate. His intention. is to expand the zone out into the suburbs, including Uxbridge, and right across the city.

Given that the country is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, taxing high-polluting vehicles in the capital seems like a very modest step. But it's been deemed too big a move, and too fast, by Labour bigwigs, who have asked Khan to rethink the policy.