Drivers promised Ulez reversal and no more car taxes - will it be enough to sway voters?

As the election race lingers on, Harper detailed how the Conservatives pledge to bring down costs for drivers.

Harper also promised to reverse the Ulez expansion which was rolled out last year and is in place across the whole of London.

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The Transport Secretary told GB News that the Conservatives are not going to increase taxes on motorists and “we're not going to have pay-per-mile road taxes”.

Pay-per-mile road tax is a proposed system which would replace the current Vehicle Excise Duty.

Under the measures, it would see drivers pay tax based on the number of miles they drive each year instead of paying a lump sum.

However, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan had previously detailed how the scheme was not on the table and not on his agenda.

But the Mayor did state he will not “move the goalposts” on Ulez emissions, something the Conservatives have promised to do.

Harper said: “We're going to reverse the Ulez expansion so not changing the Ulez that exists in central London, but the expansion that the Mayor of London did.

“It was purely about raising money, his own impact assessment said it would have a minor to negligible effect on air quality.

“It wasn't about air quality, it was about taxing motorists, particularly the poorest ones, off the road.”

The Ulez measures have been met with driver resistance since their expansion in August last year.

Recently out of the 1,348,938 penalties issued since the expansion, 974,590 have still not been paid equating to roughly three out of five drivers.

Out of the outstanding tickets, shockingly, 200 have been issued to a single vehicle with total costs topping £47,682.

The total amount in fines for breaching Ulez rules is roughly £218million with Transport for London warning that unpaid PCNs are passed on to debt recovery services and can lead to further action.

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Under the current Ulez rules, drivers of non-compliant cars are charged £12.50 daily for entering the zone.

Petrol cars that meet the Ulez standards are generally those first registered as new with the DVLA after 2005, although cars that meet the standards have been available since 2001.

Diesel cars that meet the standards are generally those first registered with the DVLA as new after September 2015.