Zero-emission Vehicle Mandate

Lord Lilley Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Baroness raises a pertinent and important point. When I was formerly a member of the Electric Vehicle APPG, we had intensive discussions about that. There are enormous issues relating to accessibility and disabled people turning up at points and not being able to access them. We know that local government has a huge role to play in this. A review is taking place and will report in February next year. I hope that everyone can input into that review to make sure that we come up with a much more fair and equitable system.

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

My Lords, given that when the last Government extended the phase-out date from 2030 to 2035 they were aligning with Europe, is the decision of the present Government to go back to 2030 a deliberate decision to misalign with Europe and to seize a Brexit opportunity, or do they just think that the Europeans have got it wrong and they had to overcome their natural Europhilia?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord has referred to himself as the grit in the oyster. He makes an important point, but we are responding to the demands of car manufacturers. I think everyone can recall the outcry when the change was made by the previous Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, more than a year ago. We are not playing games on this; it is about what is right for the industry, for the consumer and, most importantly, for the country.