The Ulez rebellion has started

It was, to adapt the famous Sun headline from the 1992 general election, Ulez wot won it. The Conservatives’ narrow hold of Uxbridge and South Ruislip was, as Angela Rayner admitted this morning, down to London mayor Sadiq Khan’s dogged determination to inflict a £12.50 daily charge on the drivers of diesel cars more than seven years old and petrol cars more than 15 years old. It shouldn’t have taken much to work out that a highly-regressive tax on the relatively poor was not going to go down well among Labour voters – yet so blinded are many in the party on green issues that they just couldn’t see it. That includes Keir Starmer who two weeks ago told the obvious fib that Sadiq Khan had no choice but to expand Ulez.

But it isn’t just Labour which should be shaken by this result. Paradoxically, although the Conservatives won, the result is a dire warning to them, too.