Driving could become an “upper class pursuit” following a ban on new petrol and diesel cars, a Conservative MP has said.
Karl McCartney, a former under secretary of state for transport, called for the Government to scrap the 2030 deadline in an interview with Allison Pearson for the Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast.
Mr McCartney, who also serves on the transport select committee, said there was “no way we’re all going to go electric”.
“There’s no way you can do that unless you’re going to basically close down the country and stop everybody being able to to drive where they want to go,” the MP for Lincoln said.
He added: “We’re going to be going back to the sort of early 1920s, making it a very upper class pursuit or hobby, which I don’t think is where we need to be in the 21st century at all.”
Rishi Sunak has faced calls to drop or delay the ban, which have grown in the wake of the by-election in Uxbridge that was seen as a referendum on the expansion of Ulez.
But the prime minister has stuck to the 2030 deadline, which has broad support from the automotive industry. Polling has found a majority of Conservative voters oppose the deadline.
There are around 1.1 million electric or plug-in hybrid cars on the road, accounting for one in every 32, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Charging infrastructure not keeping pace
Sales of used electric cars have grown more than 80 per cent in the last year, it said.
But there is concern among driving and green groups that the development of charging infrastructure is not keeping pace with sales.
In his interview, Mr McCartney said Conservative policy had been “captured by the Climate Change Committee”, who advise Parliament on its net zero commitments and had called for a 2032 phase-out for petrol and diesel cars.
“I would just hope that a really big firm dose of realism is shoved down their throats sooner rather than later,” he said.
He also raised the question of whether carbon dioxide was “the great, horrible thing that lots of people say it is”.
“I’m looking at lots of trees outside in our garden and they survive on carbon dioxide, which is oxygen that we then breathe,” he said.
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