Labour’s secret road pricing trap

• Labour are set to introduce their Lower Thames Crossing financing Bill, a framework Bill handing sweeping powers to the Secretary of State.
• Labour promised not to introduce road pricing, and now, having already introduced it on electric cars from 2028, Labour are set to expand it generally.
• The Labour Government would invariably use this to increase the overall rate of taxation and should be honest about their plans.

Today [Thursday 10^th September 2026], the Conservatives have exposed Labour plot to introduce road pricing.

It is expected that legislation being introduced today to finance the Lower Thames Crossing will give ministers sweeping powers over how the project is funded namely, road pricing. The Labour Government would invariably use this to increase the overall rate of taxation and should be honest about their plans.

The Conservatives support the crossing itself, which could unlock growth across Kent, Essex and the wider South East, however questions remain to who pays, how much, and for how long. Using it as cover to write a general power of road pricing onto the statute book is another matter entirely, and it is wrong.

In September 2025, Labour told Parliament that they have no plans' to introduce road pricing. And yet, already from April 2028 Labour are going to start to charge drivers of electric cars 3p for every mile they travel, rising with inflation every year thereafter. Drivers will be made to guess their mileage a year in advance and settle up afterwards, and the Treasury has confirmed it intends to tax the miles a British family drives on holiday in France.

Anyone who lives in the South East has heard the reassurances before. The Dartford tolls were supposed to vanish in 2003, once the crossing had been paid off. Instead the charge was quietly kept, rebranded and then put up by 40 per cent last September, so that a commuter crossing twice a day now hands over £7 to use a road her taxes bought and paid for more than 20 years ago.

Iceland began charging electric cars by the kilometre in 2024 and told motorists it was a narrow measure for a narrow problem, and by 1 January 2026 every petrol car, diesel car, hybrid and motorcycle on Icelandic roads was paying it too. Officials at the Department for Transport have confirmed that they studied the Icelandic scheme while designing our own.

The Government may proclaim that the new powers are just to fund the Lower Thames Crossing, however, it would hand the Government sweeping new abilities to introduce road pricing across the country.

For millions of families the car is how the children get to school, how their shift is reached on time and how an elderly relative is looked after, and there is no bus timetable in the country that does any of it.

Labour told the public they had no plans' for road pricing, they have since introduced road pricing on electric car and are gearing up to U-turn, legislating for further powers to charge drivers by the mile.

Labour's war on the driver has no end in sight, and hard-pressed families will be paying for it one mile at a time. Labour would use this to load even more tax onto drivers, and they should have the guts to admit it.

Richard Holden MP, Shadow Transport Secretary, said:

Drivers have been taken for a ride under this Labour Government, and it is about to take a turn for the worse.

The Lower Thames Crossing has potential to be transformative, unlocking growth across the country. However, using the legislation to fund this specific project as a Trojan Horse to introduce new sweeping new powers to charge every driver in the country for every mile they drive is underhand and wrong.

Families and businesses are not an ATM for a profligate Labour Government who are unwilling to control welfare spending. Labour would use this to load even more tax onto drivers, and they should have the guts to admit it.

ENDS 

Notes to Editors:

Lower Thames Crossing:

• At the Autumn Budget in November 2025 the Government decided that drivers using the new crossing, rather than taxpayers generally, would foot the bill for building it. The Government confirmed the Regulated Asset Base model as its preferred financing model for the Lower Thames Crossing at the Autumn Budget in November 2025, on the basis that construction costs are primarily met by users rather than taxpayers. (Department for Transport, Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) accounting officer assessment summary (February 2026), link)

• Labour have hired advisers to help sell the 14-mile road and its two tunnels under the Thames to private investors. The Department for Transport has been procuring advisers on a sale of the project to private investors, describing the scheme as a 14.3-mile road and tunnel with two 2.6-mile tunnels under the Thames. (Department for Transport, Lower Thames Crossing Strategic Sale Advisor, tender notice 2025/S 000-070096, 31 October 2025, link)

• The Dartford Crossing charges £3.50 for cars despite it being promised tolls were to end on 1st April 2003. The Dartford Crossing charge currently stands at £3.50 for cars and £8.40 for multi-axle goods vehicles, with charges applying every day between 6am and 10pm. An increase in the toll took effect on 1 September 2025 raised the standard car charge from £2.50 to £3.50, an uplift of 40 per cent, the first change since 2014. Tolls were due to end on 1st April 2003 when the initial PFI contract ended (GOV.UK, Pay the Dartford Crossing charge, accessed on 8 September 2026, link; Kent County Council, News, 7 July 2025, link; BBC News, 6 November 2024, link).

Pay-per-mile road pricing:

• Labour said they have no plans' to introduce road pricing. Regarding road pricing, a government spokesperson said: We have no plans to introduce road pricing. We are committed to supporting our automotive sector as we transition to electric vehicles in order to meet our legally binding climate targets' (Hansard, 18 September 2025, link).

• The Tony Blair Institute have urged Labour to introduce road pricing, describing it as a priority' reform. Rather than increasing fuel duty in the spring, introduce a simple pay-per-mile road-pricing system of 1p per mile for cars and vans, and 2.5p to 4p for heavy-goods vehicles. This reform would be revenue neutral compared with current plans to raise fuel duty but would be a crucal step in reforming the UK's system of motoring taxation for the electric-vehicle era. In doing so, it would help prevent a growth-stifling rise in road congestion' (Tony Blair Institute, Looking Beyond UK Budget 2024: Priority Reforms for 2025, 23 October 2024, link).

• Labour introduced road pricing for electric cars at the Autumn Budget 2025. The Chancellor announced at the Autumn Budget 2025 that drivers would be taxed according to how much they drive and not merely by the type of car they own, at 3p per mile for electric cars and 1.5p for plug-in hybrids. Drivers will have to guess and pay for their mileage in advance, with a balancing payment on reconciliation. The rate will be uprated annually in line with CPI inflation. Mileage driven outside the United Kingdom falls within scope of the tax (Hansard, 26 November 2025, Col.395, link; HM Treasury, Consultation Response, July 2026, para 8.8, link; House of Commons Library, Electric vehicle excise duty (eVED), 26 March 2026, p16, link).

• The Department for Transport confirmed that officials took account of the Icelandic and New Zealand approaches when designing the new charge (Government written evidence to the Transport Committee, paras 113-114, link)

• Iceland brought in a per-kilometre charge on electric and hybrid cars in 2024, then extended it to every vehicle on the road, including motorcycles, from 1 January 2026. Iceland applied a per-kilometre charge to electric and plug-in hybrid cars from early 2024 and extended it to petrol, diesel, hybrid, hydrogen and electric vehicles and to motorcycles from 1 January 2026, with rates set across 29 weight categories (Government of Iceland, Our Roads to the Future, accessed on 8 September 2026, link).

• New Zealand ended its electric vehicle exemption from road user charges on 1 April 2024 (NZ Transport Agency, Electric vehicles, accessed on 8 September 2026, link).

• As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham campaigned for an investment-led, non-charging clean air plan on the grounds that charging risked financial hardship for local people and businesses, and confirmed that under his preferred plan no vehicle would be charged to drive in a clean air zone in Greater Manchester (Greater Manchester Combined Authority, 13 May 2022, link; Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Greater Manchester non-charging plan delivers cleaner air faster than charging zone, modelling shows, link)