Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate

Bernard Jenkin Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

As I may have said to other colleagues, JLR will stand to benefit from the flexibilities we have announced today: the increased borrowing flexibility; the extension and the expansion of the carbon dioxide transfer cap; and the changes we talked about on the way we measure CO₂ emissions from plug-in hybrids, which will make it easier for them to use the CO₂ transfer flexibility. I think all those things we have announced today will be welcomed by JLR and, hopefully, by her constituents employed at the factory.

[Sir Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)]

If the Government’s top priority really is growth, a policy that sets artificial targets to ban products that people want to buy, which are not subsidised, to force them to buy cheap Chinese products that they do not really want, which are subsidised, does not sound like a policy for growth. Incidentally, they also suffer from very high insurance costs and high depreciation costs, and may lead to the closing down of capacity to produce in the United Kingdom the products that people do want to buy. The Secretary of State may have priorities, but growth is not one of them.

[Heidi Alexander]

I suggest that the hon. Gentleman speak to his constituents, who are buying EVs in numbers. There has been a 40% increase—

[Sir Bernard Jenkin]

I’ve got one!

[Heidi Alexander]

The hon. Gentleman is telling me that he has one, which is fantastic—he is clearly leading the way. This is a massive industrial opportunity for this country and we need to give certainty and confidence to both businesses and consumers, which is precisely what this Government are doing. If the hon. Gentleman wishes to become the poster boy for the EV industry, I would be very happy to have a conversation with him about that.