PETER FORTUNE: Sadiq Khan assaults integrity of scientific community
PETER FORTUNE: Sadiq Khan just wants to hush up reports that don’t suit his agenda in a shameful assault on the integrity of the scientific community
- Sadiq Khan attributed up to 4,100 deaths in London during 2019 to air pollution
- Imperial College has received more than £800,000 from City Hall since 2021
Sadiq Khan is adamant that expanding the ultra-low emission zone to the outer fringes of London is not a cynical tax grab but a principled, dutiful response to scientific findings.
So it is deeply concerning to discover that the London Mayor appears to be relying on data from a university research group directly funded by the mayor’s own office, apparently ignoring and suppressing other data – and that his spin doctors have tried to protect his credibility.
The Environmental Research Group at Imperial College has received more than £800,000 from City Hall since 2021, including £45,958 for a report on the ‘future health benefits of mayoral air quality policies’, which Khan has cited repeatedly to justify his Ulez plans.
Khan points to research attributing up to 4,100 deaths in London during 2019 to air pollution from traffic. But this relies on contentious statistical modelling and does not mean Ulez is preventing thousands of people from dropping dead each year.
The London Mayor appears to be relying on data from a university research group directly funded by the mayor’s own office
In fact, the Mayor’s office tried to discredit and silence a rival study, co-authored by Dr Marc Stettler, that found imposing the ultra-low emissions zone had a negligible effect on this form of pollution. To be exact, it said Ulez cut NO2 and PM2.5 pollution by less than three per cent, even in very built-up areas.
In my own constituency of Bexley and Bromley, on the Kent border where much of the district is rural, the health benefits of Ulez will be next to none. The economic impact, though, will be dire. And it is the poorest families who will suffer most from the £12.50 daily charge on vehicles that don’t meet Ulez criteria. Businesses that are struggling to make a profit will go under. Parents will be punished for taking their children to school or ferrying them to sports and music clubs.
In my constituency, there’s not one Tube station. The same is true next-door in Croydon and Sutton. We’re closer to Biggin Hill airport than to the Tube system. And bus services are being cut, not expanded.
Many people rely on their cars to get about while others are dependent on private-hire vehicles, such as Ubers. Small businesses, meanwhile, often need to run vans. There’s no other option, and Ulez punishes them for getting on with their lives – for simply making a living.
One of the questions I have repeatedly asked the mayor is whether Ulez is really the best way to clean up air in outer London where air pollution is already quite low. What would be the cost, for instance, of electrifying the bus fleets? Are there pollution hotspots we could target with specific schemes?
Many people rely on their cars to get about while others are dependent on private-hire vehicles, such as Ubers
It is the poorest families who will suffer most from the £12.50 daily charge on vehicles that don’t meet Ulez criteria
Instead of considering alternatives, Khan, pictured, doggedly refers back to the ‘science’. This now looks like an attempt to manipulate the data, an excuse to implement this swingeing tax.
In its first year, Ulez expansion is expected to net £200 million. It is money the mayor needs urgently, after mishandling the finances of Transport for London, with its bloated bureaucratic machinery.
To safeguard this tax income, and to protect Khan’s ‘credibility’, his office tried to silence Imperial scientists whose research cast doubt on the Ulez scheme’s impact on health. The mayor’s real attitude to ‘following the science’ appears to be that reports should be hushed up if he doesn’t like their conclusions.
I believe this has been a shameful assault on the integrity of the scientific community. The investigation has revealed some scientists are now ‘unwilling to publish further work on the subject’.
Following vandalism to Ulez cameras, mobile CCTV cars will be deployed around London from next week. This takes us one step closer to charging road users by the mile, whatever they’re driving – which I fear is Sadiq Khan’s ultimate goal.
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