John Redwood – 2023 Parliamentary Question on Pausing the Ban on New Petrol and Diesel Vehicles

The parliamentary question asked by John Redwood, the Conservative MP for Wokingham, in the House of Commons on 18 January 2023.

John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)

As we are very short of commitments to assemble more EVs in the United Kingdom, which would be needed to create battery demand, will the Minister pause the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles until our EV capacity has caught up? Otherwise, the industry will shrink too much.

Graham Stuart

I thank my right hon. Friend, whose economic insights I always value and appreciate. However, we are committed to electric and zero-emission vehicles and we will not stimulate investment in those sectors by removing the mandates that drive consumer choice and have led to such a significant change in our road transport emissions. We are going to have even more ambitious steps.