Outer London boroughs could be offered a referendum on Sadiq Khan’s expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) scheme under Tory a mayoral hopeful.
If selected as a candidate and succesful elected in next year’s elections, Samuel Kasumu, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, would grant boroughs affected by the expansion - including Bromley, Bexley, Harrow and Hillingdon - a vote on whether to remain in the zone or leave it.
The Mayor is set to expand the Ulez scheme to cover all 32 boroughs in August, with drivers of older petrol or diesel cars to pay Transport for London (TfL) £12.50 for every day they cross into, or move within, the zone.
The expansion has been met with fierce opposition from some Tory and Lib Dem run boroughs, which have asked Mr Khan to delay the widening to allow residents more time to upgrade their vehicles.
But Mr Kasumu told The Daily Telegraph that he would hold a local referendum on the issue.
“I will promise within the first 12 months to have a local referendum for every outer London borough so they can be empowered with the choice about how they respond to what Sadiq has done,” he said.
He said it would be “very simple” and “a bit like Brexit” – “in or out, and we will respect whatever choice they make” – but added that he expected the “vast majority will vote to reverse it”.
Mr Kasumu said he would limit the vote to the boroughs affected by the expanded zone because a “blanket reversal” of the extension could trigger legal challenges, adding further costs to the scheme.
He said it would be a “challenge” to unravel the existing Ulez in inner city London, where there doesn’t seem to be “significant demand” for uprooting it.
Mr Kasumu said the referendum could be digitised to say money and councils would be able to apply to the Greater London Authority for grants to promote the referendum.
Mr Khan often claims he is expanding the scheme because five million more Londoners will breathe cleaner air as a result. He often refers to research from Imperial College, which estimated that in 2019 between 3,600 and 4,100 premature deaths in London were due in part to the poor air quality.
Mr Kasumu, 35, is one of two candidates who have already put themselves forward for the Tory mayoral nomination. Andrew Boff, a member of the London Assembly, is the other.
An award-winning social entrepreneur, Mr Kasumu is a married father-of-two from Barnet.
He began his 2024 election bid at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham with a theme of inspiring hope for Londoners.
He joined the Tories as a 19-year-old, saying that the party needed to broaden its appeal to retain electoral success.
In April last year, he quit as a special adviser to Johnson after a Government-backed review said Britain is no longer a country where the “system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”.
In his resignation letter, he accused the Conservatives of pursuing “a politics steeped in division”.
