Boris Johnson lashes out at Sadiq Khan over Ulez expansion: 'He must be stopped!'

Johnson, who was the Mayor of London from 2008-2016, criticised his Labour successor’s plans which will impact his own constituents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, accusing Khan of misleading the public about the scheme's health benefits.

"How can it be right that Khan is able to impose this tax on working people who have been given no say, and no opportunity to raise their objections?," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"This scheme was never intended for outer London. Khan must be stopped."

The Ultra-Low Emission Zone is set to be expanded on August 29, imposing a £12.50 charge on all non-compliant vehicles across London’s boroughs – including areas in the greenbelt.

Khan has faced public and political backlash as well as a High Court challenge with the trial set to begin in July, after five Conservative-led councils initiated a legal battle over the expansion.

In February, the Advertising Standards Agency launched an investigation into a Transport for London TV advert claiming the capital "has an urgent air quality problem and it’s impacting the health of Londoners".

The watchdog has requested further information and evidence to assess whether the claims were misleading after hundreds of complaints.

With a general election looming in just under two years’ time, and local elections three weeks away, Khan’s policy and its backlash has started to worry Labour HQ who fear the expansion will hit the working classes the hardest and cost the party the chance to win seats on the capital’s fringes.

Ulez has become a major point of contention ahead of the next London mayoral election in 2024.

One of Johnson’s former advisers who is hoping to be the Conservative Party's 2024 mayoral candidate, Samuel Kasumu, has pledged a referendum on the policy for outer London boroughs.

Shaun Bailey, who ran against Khan under the Tory banner in 2021 and was at a protest against the expansion in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, told GB News: "People think it (Ulez expansion) is unjust, unfair and uncalled for.

"They say the Mayor’s own study suggests that this will have a negligible effect on the quality of air in outer London.

"So when he tries to make it about cleaning the air, they feel like he’s lying to them.”

This morning Imperial College London published a landmark report on air pollution in the capital, finding it damages people’s health at every stage of their lives from before we're born right through to old age.

The Mayor, said: "We know that air pollution is damaging the health of Londoners in every single borough of London.

"That’s why there really is no time to waste in introducing measures like the expansion of the Ulez to ensure that we protect the health of Londoners and build a safer, greener city for everyone."