There’s history of highway robbers in Uxbridge but Khan is the worst yet

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (Image: Getty) Here in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, we’ve got a local legend. It claims the famed highwayman, Dick Turpin, lived in a cottage just up Harefield Road.   These days Hillingdon has a new bandit in town, telling us to ‘stand and deliver’ when we drive our own cars – London’s Labour Mayor, Sadiq Khan. But a quick chat with anyone at the Middlesex Arms on a Saturday confirms that we’d prefer to cough up to the real deal rather than to the modern Labour rip-off. After all, Turpin asked for a few shillings – not four-and-a-half grand a year. You don’t have to walk far in Uxbridge to hear what this by-election is about. It’s about the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and the Mayor of London ignoring us year after year. Across the country, experts and pundits have predicted a big Labour win. For them, it’s a ‘done deal’.   That might be why, when asked in the London Assembly if he would be coming to Uxbridge to campaign, the Mayor of London said he’d make it for the ‘celebratory party’ for his candidate from Camden. London’s Labour Mayor is already chilling the champagne and preparing to celebrate a win.   But here in Uxbridge, residents like myself, my neighbours and my friends have a real chance to turn around and spoil the Mayor’s party at our expense. July 20 is our moment to stand up for our community and tell him ULEZ isn’t welcome – it never was and never will be. Protest against ULEZ expansion (Image: Getty) Simply put, this by-election is our chance to send Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan a clear message he cannot ignore: when he says “stand and deliver”, Uxbridge and South Ruislip won’t. We can tell him to cancel his ULEZ expansion, keep our police station open – and see off this highway robbery. We’ve got a good reason to believe that, too. Labour is already in a state of panic, with Sir Keir Starmer, a staunch ally of the Labour Mayor, now flipping and flopping all over the place in a desperate bid to pull the wool over voters’ eyes.   They’re worried about how big a headache this ULEZ cash grab is.   So if they fail to win big, Sir Keir Starmer and Labour MPs in London will pile the pressure on Sadiq Khan to scrap his Ulez expansion.  But if they do win big? Sadiq Khan will take that as a blank cheque, a clear endorsement of his ULEZ expansion, and see it as a remit to continue to ignore us. I’ve knocked on thousands of doors, not only as a local councillor in Hillingdon but also in this by-election.   I hear the same thing time and time again.   Our local community will be battered by this ULEZ expansion.   Local businesses, including those at a recent Chamber of Commerce hustings, are begging the Mayor to halt his charge. Cabbies, already up against a Mayor that isn’t on their side, feel let down by his latest attacks on drivers. Care workers can’t afford the cost it’ll add to their commute. And, our high street businesses fear the loss of footfall it will bring as shoppers outside the M25 move to cheaper towns, sure in the knowledge that surely the Mayor won’t raid their pockets next. Leaving shoppers down £12.50 before they’ve even stepped into the shop on the high street benefits no one. There’s noise across the constituency, people desperate for the Mayor to listen – and they’ve been given a chance to make him. Uxbridge and South Ruislip need a local MP that is on our side. An MP that works with the community to get things done. Someone born and raised right here, who is on our side when it comes to standing up to Sadiq Khan, and telling him to scrap his unwanted and unwelcome Ulez expansion. A tax that will hurt everyone, from key workers to the lowest earners to grandparents, wanting to see their grandkids, not to mention local businesses. It’s our choice. Our choice between voting for someone local, with roots in our community – but also our choice to vote and send a clear, undiluted signal to the City Hall that their ULEZ expansion is not welcome here in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Our choice in telling the modern-day Dick Turpin that if he tells us to ‘stand and deliver’, it’ll fall on deaf ears. Steve Tuckwell is the Conservative by-election candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip