It is “extremely hard” to be a motorist “on a modest income”, Sir Keir Starmer has said, as he pledged to “bear down” on costs for drivers.
The Prime Minister told The Sun that “we need to drive down the cost of motoring”, which acts as a “lifeline” for “many people”.
He made the comments as the Government unveiled plans for councils to prove they are tackling the issue of potholes or face losing the cash to fix them.
Speaking to the newspaper on a visit to a garage in Cambridge as he unveiled the pothole plans, Sir Keir was asked whether he backs tougher rules for insurance companies and parking firms amid increasing prices for drivers.
The Prime Minister said: “I think we’ve got to look at all of these issues, because whether it’s insurance, whether it’s parking, whether it’s a number of other measures, it is extremely hard and difficult to be a motorist on a modest income these days.
“And, yes, I do want to bear down on all that. There’s not – in terms of what the Government can do – a lot of these are private companies, but I think that we need to drive down the cost of motoring, because that’s a lifeline for so many people.”
Asked whether it was a priority for his Government, he said: “Yeah, we need to bring the price down, the cost down.”
Sir Keir said on Monday there needs to be accountability in the system of fixing potholes.
On the same visit, the Prime Minister spoke to two members of the public who have been affected by pothole damage, one of whom told him that budgets for fixing the holes are “the wrong way around”.
Sir Keir responded: “The first thing we need to do is to get a bit of accountability into it, to know which councils are doing what where.
“How many times are they filling in holes so we can get a bit of data on that which we haven’t got?”
