Boris says owners of heavily-polluting diesel cars should get Government cash to switch to cleaner alternatives
- Leadership hopeful Johnson offers up idea of Government scrappage scheme for old diesel cars to help pay for electric vehicles
- Boris suggested the idea in a series of pledges during interview with the Mail
- He is also considering an amnesty for ‘tens of thousands’ of illegal immigrants who have been in the UK for more than 15 years
- Polls suggest he will beat rival Jeremy Hunt in three weeks time
Owners of ageing diesel cars deserve Government help to switch to cleaner vehicles, Mr Johnson said.
It was a matter of ‘honour’ that people who were encouraged to buy diesel vehicles should not now be penalised, he said.
In his interview with the Mail, he stopped short of committing funds to a comprehensive scrappage scheme to take polluting vehicles off the road.
But he indicated he was interested in looking at ways to help promote cleaner alternatives.
Boris Johnson has offered the prospect of a Government scheme to help people with heavily polluting diesel cars switch to cleaner vehicles in an interview with the Daily Mail
This could include looking again at the decision last year to slash subsidies for electric vehicles, which has been blamed for a slump in sales.
Explaining his previous call for a scrappage scheme while Mayor of London, he said: ‘I thought in all honour, having promoted diesel in the way that the Government did we should help people with diesel vehicles. I do think that – although that is not, I hasten to say, a spending commitment.’
Asked whether he was open to helping diesel owners switch, he said: ‘We should be getting people on to [electric vehicles].
Norway already has I think 60 per cent of new vehicles [electric], maybe higher.’
Mr Johnson, who drives a 15-year-old diesel-powered Toyota, also described punitive new charges designed to drive dirty vehicles off the road in some city centres as a ‘terrible business’.