Sadiq Khan has hit back at Boris Johnson’s criticism of the planned expansion of London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez).
The zone is due to be expanded to cover the whole of the capital from August 29 to boost air quality, with a £12.50 daily fee for vehicles not meeting minimum standards.
Mr Khan said he will take “no lectures” from his predecessor as London mayor, Mr Johnson, who in a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday, accused Mr Khan of expanding the scheme to “rake in money” from motorists.
Mr Khan, speaking at a young people’s event at the London Stadium on Thursday, told the PA news agency: “Johnson was the mayor who took no action 10 years ago when he was given a report that showed that there were more than 400 schools in areas where the air was unlawful, some of the poorest parts of the country, he hid that report away.
“He’s also the mayor who knew about nine-year-old Ella (Adoo-Kissi-Debrah), 10 years ago, losing her life and took no action.”
The nine-year-old girl died in 2013 after an asthma attack brought on by exposure to London’s traffic emissions, and in a landmark coroner’s case was the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death at an inquest in the UK.
Mr Khan added: “He’s also the mayor who, when he became the prime minister, penalised London when it came to the deal with TfL (Transport for London).
“So we’ll take no lectures from a former prime minister, the former mayor, who ignored the science and ignored the facts.”
In the video, Mr Johnson urged people to stop Mr Khan’s “mad expansion plan”, which he labelled a “lefty tax on people’s lives and livelihoods”.
Earlier, this month, the capital’s mayor wrote to the leaders of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon councils describing their grounds for a potential legal challenge to the measure as “wholly without merit and misconceived”.
Labour mayor Mr Khan dismissed opposition from local authorities as a “vocal minority” on Thursday, and spoke of wanting to be on the “right side of history”.
Asked what he made of some Labour MPs also criticising the plan, Mr Khan said: “Evidence that this policy is not about party politics is the fact that it’s got some people are opposing it from the Labour Party as well as the Conservative Party.
“It’s really important to recognise that actually, the evidence is unequivocal.”
