Rishi Sunak is right to reconsider his green pledges

The old carmakers were slow to realise the potential of electric cars and didn’t innovate. So Elon Musk, an internet tycoon, bought Tesla and stole a march on an entire industry. The internal combustion cohort then rushed to catch up: Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo and Ford all committed to go electric-only by 2030. The problem is that electric cars are expensive, so most drivers still prefer cheaper petrol ones. Ministers came up with a plan to deny people the choice, to pass laws that would ban the sale of new petrol-based cars.

This always was a conspiracy against the public, justified on very thin environmental arguments. For the average taxpaying driver, facing an unprecedented crunch in living standards, it threatened to make life more difficult still. Gary Smith, leader of the GMB trade union, spoke last week about how the old environmental agenda has ‘decimated’ working-class communities.