Labour MPs Push Back as Ministers Weigh Cutting 2030 EV Target

Labour MPs are digging in against any softening of Britain's electric vehicle mandate, as divided cabinet ministers head into a Thursday meeting to settle the row. The climate and nature crisis caucus (CNCC) says ministers must not water down the legal requirement that 80% of vehicles sold in 2030 be electric, calling any retreat a backward step and shortsighted.

The meeting was originally set for Wednesday before being pushed back a day, according to government sources. Louise Haigh, the de facto deputy prime minister, will sit down with the energy, business and transport secretaries. She is standing in for Andy Burnham after the prime minister recused himself over a potential conflict of interest, and sources say she is likely to back a middle path, landing the target somewhere between 60% and 65%.

The cabinet is split three ways. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds wants the target halved to 50%, transport secretary Heidi Alexander favours roughly 60%, and energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is holding out for something as close to 80% as possible. A final announcement is expected this month.

Chris Hinchliff, who chairs the CNCC, wrote to Alexander on Tuesday warning a cut would be a step backwards that would undermine the government's net zero ambitions and its credibility as a climate leader on the world stage. He argued diluting the mandate would also undercut Burnham's push to reindustrialise Britain, calling it a backward-looking distraction from the need for a coordinated industrial strategy. The Department for Transport has been contacted for comment.

Other Labour MPs are lining up behind Hinchliff. Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, said the country needs more ambitious targets, not less, warning that dropping them after setting them sends a message of inconsistency. Nadia Whittome, MP for Nottingham East, called the mandate the government's biggest decarbonisation policy and said watering it down would carry serious environmental consequences without helping the cost of living.

Not everyone in the party agrees. Antonia Bance, MP for Tipton and Wednesbury, said a 50% zero-emission target by 2030 would give manufacturers a more realistic pathway while keeping net zero in reach, and argued good jobs, investment and supply chains need protecting too. Some MPs worry that weakening the EV policy and approving the Jackdaw gasfield are feeding a public sense that the government is not very progressive, with one telling the Guardian that climate does not seem close to Burnham's heart and that the Green party could benefit.