Labour MPs are pushing back against government plans to weaken the UK's electric vehicle targets as cabinet ministers prepare for a crucial meeting to decide on changes to the 2030 requirement. The climate and nature crisis caucus has warned that reducing the legal mandate for carmakers to ensure 80% of vehicles sold in 2030 are electric would be a backward step and shortsighted, undermining the country's net zero ambitions and credibility as a climate leader on the world stage.
Ministers are deeply divided on how much to cut the target. The business secretary wants to slash it to 50%, while the transport secretary is pushing for a reduction to around 60%. The energy secretary wants the target to remain as close to 80% as possible. According to government sources, the deputy prime minister is likely to support a compromise of between 60% and 65%. The meeting to decide the outcome, originally scheduled for Wednesday, has been pushed back to Thursday, with a final announcement expected this month.
Chris Hinchliff, chair of the climate and nature crisis caucus, has written to the transport secretary warning that cutting the 2030 target would undermine the government's push to reindustrialise Britain. He argued that weakening the mandate would be a backward-looking distraction from the need for a coordinated industrial strategy. Several other Labour MPs have backed his position. Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, said the government needs more ambitious targets, not less ambitious ones, and that reducing targets sends a message to the country that promises cannot be kept. Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, called the EV mandate the government's biggest decarbonisation policy and warned that watering it down would have serious environmental consequences.
Not all Labour MPs agree. Some members from industrial areas support weakening the target. Antonia Bance, MP for Tipton and Wednesbury, said a 50% target by 2030 would give manufacturers a more realistic pathway while keeping the country on track for net zero, adding it would also protect jobs, investment and supply chains in the UK. Other party members worry that weakening the EV policy, combined with other decisions like approving the Jackdaw gasfield, risks undermining the government's green credentials and boosting support for the Green party.
Weakening the 2030 EV target would reduce the pace of electric vehicle adoption for UK buyers and could lead to higher emissions from vehicles sold in the country during the 2030s if car manufacturers scale back their transition plans.