The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has reviewed the four party general election manifestos published this week. The conclusion is that none of the manifestos offer motorcyclists much hope.
MAG has analysed the general election manifestos published by the Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Green and Labour parties over the last week. MAG has produced a scorecard for the four parties, measuring each manifesto’s alignment with Move on Motorcycling.
The scorecards for all four manifestos fall well short of delivering a promising future for motorcyclists. Ranging between -1 to +1, none of the manifestos get a positive overall score.
The Liberal Democrats, Labour and Green manifestos all score -0.8. The Conservative manifesto fairs a little better with an overall score of -0.3. The factors pushing the Conservative score up were clear promises to deliver universal motorcycle access in bus lanes, ban local pay-per-mile driving schemes and a commitment to reform motorcycle licencing.
However, none of the manifestos promise to scrap the vehicle electrification mandate. The Green manifesto calls for ending ICE vehicle sales in just three years’ time. Beyond this the Green Party also wants to end use of all ICE vehicles on the road by 2035. Labour and the Liberal Democrats want to restore the 2030 date previously postponed to 2035 by Rishi Sunak. The Conservatives are sticking to the 2035 date and keeping the ZEV mandate which started from this year.
MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said:
“The four manifestos are a grim prospect for riders. They clearly show that the interests of riders are not in the heart of these four parties’ policies. There’s another three weeks to go until polling day, and MAG will be redoubling efforts to sway the opinions of all parliamentary candidates. Bikers are Voters – all candidates need to do to win those votes is Move on Motorcycling.”
MAG’s individual scorecards for the four manifestos can be found here:
Photo by Nirmal Rajendharkumar on Unsplash