Starmer turns on Sadiq over Ulez

You just hate to see it. Less than 12 hours after the Uxbridge result and already the Labour blame game is well underway. The chairman of the local party has quit in disgust, citing Starmer’s lack of principles. And now Starmer has decided that the solution to his problems is to, er, throw his party’s most senior elected politician in England under the bus. Let’s hope it was a carbon-friendly one…

Sir Keir told broadcasters this morning that Uxbridge was always going to be a ‘tough’ seat, arguing that:

We didn’t take it in 1997 when we had a landslide Labour victory. And Ulez was the reason we didn’t win there yesterday. We know that. We heard that on the doors. And we’ve all got to reflect on that, including the mayor.

That’s a very different tone from Sadiq Khan, whose reaction to the defeat was to claim that:

The decision to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone was a tough one, but it’s the right one.