Diesel car owners could be ‘betrayed’ without scrappage scheme - senior Tories
2 min read
Owners of diesel cars could be “betrayed” if they are not offered money before they are hit with new taxes, senior Tories have warned.
More than a dozen backbenchers have urged the Government to implement a scrappage scheme - or risk a rebellion in Parliament.
Michael Gove announced last week that new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be banned from 2040 amid concerns about air quality.
It marked a complete reversal in strategy from the last Labour government, which had encouraged drivers to buy diesel cars in the belief they were better for the environment.
Diesel drivers now fact the prospect of potentially paying higher taxes to drive in certain areas.
Former Tory minister Robert Halfon is among the MPs who is calling for a scrappage scheme which would incentivise people to get rid of their cars before taxes are brought in.
He told the Sunday Telegraph: “If you’re told to buy an electrical good for health and safety reasons and then you realise it doesn’t do what it says, you get a refund.
“What’s happening here is drivers are being told not only to take their product back, but that they will be charged because the advice was wrong.”
Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: “There should be a properly funded scrappage scheme to take the oldest and dirtiest diesels off the round.
“It could be paid for with a higher tax on all brand new gas guzzlers – the luxury cars with big engines that have low miles per gallon.”
“Given that drivers were encouraged to buy diesel by the last Labour government it would be extraordinary to allow them to be punished with higher taxes without a proper scrappage scheme in.”
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