Gove rows back on 2030 petrol car ban U-turn

If you U-turn on a U-turn, does that make it an O-turn? That’s the question Mr S is wondering this morning given the mess ministers have managed to get themselves into on plans to ban new diesel and petrol cars. The ban is due to come into effect from 2030 but yesterday Andrew Mitchell, the Foreign Office minister, appeared to suggest that this might not be the case.

Asked by Radio 4 if the government intends to stick to the plan, Mitchell told the Today programme that ‘All I can tell you is it is in place… But I’m afraid I can’t prophesy for the future.’ Rishi Sunak then prevaricated on the question a few hours later, giving an extremely lukewarm answer when pressed on the subject:

Of course Net Zero is important to me. So yes we’re going to keep making progress towards our net zero ambitions and we’re also going to strengthen our energy security.