The parliamentary candidates have seen their chequered flag, but the sound of MAG’s lobbyist starting gun has already been heard. Labour now forms the Government, and MAG’s Move on Motorcycling message to government starts again.
Labour swept to victory last week with a majority of over 170 seats in the House of Commons. Labour’s election manifesto had little to excite motorcyclists. The Labour proposal for ending the sale of ICEVs is 2030. Though it does not specifically include motorcycles, Labour has made no comment to suggest a more relaxed approach for motorcycles.
On the campaign trail Labour promised to fund repairs of up to a million potholes a year. But Mr Pothole has pointed to data from Stan the App, which detects and classifies potholes, suggesting that there are 11.5 million potholes on the UK road network.
Louise Haigh, now Transport Minister, promised that car insurance would be a point of focus but failed to mention motorcycle insurance in that conversation.
One Labour candidate defended the party’s manifesto in a MAG husting event held in Scotland saying that Labour would under-promise but over-deliver, adding: “but that doesn’t mean that the things that you’re talking about, if they’re key, won’t come to the fore.”
MAG is encouraging members to write to their new MPs with the key message of highlighting three key decisions that the new Government needs to deliver. The processes for all three were started before the election:
- a decision to drop proposals on ICE motorcycle sales,
- completion of the extended motorcycles in bus lanes consultation, and
- sign off on launching a review of the motorcycle licence.
MAG’s Director of Campaigns and Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said:
“The decision to call the General Election earlier than most expected had a significant impact for the motorcycle lobby. Rishi left us hanging on three key decisions on MAG’s campaign strands. All were very close before the day Mr Sunak realised he had forgotten his umbrella. The first and by far most important was a conclusion to the consultation on ending sales of new ICE motorcycles. Despite promises from Minister Browne in February that the decision was ‘imminent’, we are still waiting. Secondly the bus lane consultation was hurtling towards the logical positive outcome we have spent decades campaigning for. And finally, the review of motorcycle licensing regime. Minister Opperman, in May this year, suggested that the review would be announced this summer. We need to ensure the new Government does not kick these decisions down the road. They need to get Moving on Motorcycling.”
Speaking on the day of the election results, MAG Chair, Neil Liversidge said:
“The General Election has returned Labour which says it will ban internal combustion engine-powered vehicles (ICEVs) from 2030. It will soon realise, however, that doing so risks hanging itself with a noose resembling that which Margaret Thatcher made for herself with the Poll Tax, because, as with the Poll Tax, the proposed ICEV ban will make a lot more losers than winners.
In the four or five years ahead, between now and the next General Election, we must pursue a three-pronged strategy.
Firstly, we must work to persuade Labour to change course away from anti-motorism and forced electrification, dropping its plan to ban the sale of ICEVs and embracing climate realism. In that effort we shall not be without allies. Major trade unions are deeply unhappy with Labour’s stance on fossil fuels. They recognise the risk that the Labour-Green dogma poses to the living standards and freedoms of ordinary people, even if Labour’s leadership does not.
Secondly, we must work to encourage the main Tory opposition to position itself alongside Reform as the party of the motorist and climate realism. Again, we shall not find ourselves without allies. Boris Johnson brought forward Teresa May’s doomsday date from her plan of 2040 despite the unhappiness of many in the Tory ranks. Boris is now history, however, and with his departure the Tories now have the opportunity to consign his anti-motorism to the political dustbin.
Thirdly we must work to awaken the nearly 50 million full and provisional licence-holders to the threat forced electrification, anti-motorism, and the climate cult pose to their health, wealth, and freedom. That cohort, the people who keep the UK moving, those who make its wealth and deliver its services, they are the true electoral majority.
This morning, we have a newly elected government flushed with victory and an opposition that is flat on its back and crushed. We in MAG are neither flushed nor crushed. We are resolute. We have a plan. We have the will to win, and we shall.”
Main photo by POWERING OFFROAD on Unsplash