Sadiq Khan won’t have to pay the ULEZ charge: London mayor’s taxpayer-funded luxury 2020 Range Rover is exempt from the £12.50-a-day fee!

• ULEZ charge is set to apply to all of London’s boroughs from August 29 
• Mr Khan’s Range Rover Sentinel is bulletproof and has a five-litre engine

London Mayor Sadiq Khan will have no worries driving around London in his taxpayer funded luxury Range Rover once the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) comes into force – as it will be exempt from the charge.

While drivers of older, cheaper cars will have to pay £12.50 for entering ULEZ, Mr Khan can sit back and enjoy his comfortable ride as he is ferried around the capital in his £300,000 James Bond style armoured plated vehicle, which is provided for him by the Metropolitan Police.

The ULEZ fee will apply to vehicles that do not meet minimum emissions standards but generally affects diesel cars registered before 2015 and cars registered prior to 2005.

Fortunately for Mr Khan, his lavish 2020 Range Rover, paid for by public funds, does not fall into this category, unlike the situation many hard-up motorists in and around London face, who are having to either buy new vehicles or pay the ULEZ charge.

Those who do not pay the £12.50 charge will be fined £180.

Sadiq Khan will not have to worry about paying the ULEZ charge when it comes into force on Tuesday as his taxpayer-funded car is exempt

The Mayor’s Range Rover Sentinel built in 2020 will not have to pay the £12.50 charge

ULEZ originally covered inner-London but is now set to expand to cover all the capital’s boroughs from 29 August, igniting widespread fury at its financial impact on drivers and Mr Khan’s determination to bring it into force.

As drivers in and around the capital brace themselves for the new charge, he was pictured walking along streets close to his London home with his Range Rover closely following behind.

Local resident Jason Delaney told MailOnline: ‘We see him walking around here quite a lot in the mornings and the car’s always behind him. I’m not quite sure where he’s going but perhaps it’s to the Tube station because the traffic around here is awful.

‘Ironically, it’s because of all the cycle lanes and traffic calming measures that his Labour administration supports. Maybe it’s easier for Mr Khan to walk than use his fancy car? If he’s not using it, then why have it? I’m sure it costs us all a lot of money.’

Another resident added: ‘ULEZ is going to cost people a lot of money but not Mr Khan. It’s all right for him to have a new car that doesn’t have to pay the fee but what about the rest of us?

‘At least he gets to save £12.50 per day but I know a lot of people won’t. It doesn’t seem fair to me.’

Mr Khan’s luxury Range Rover has a five-litre engine and is bulletproof with spike-proof tyres and armoured glass

The £300,000 state-of-the-art vehicle was given to Mr Khan by Scotland Yard following threats to his life

Mr Khan’s top-end, ULEZ-exempt Range Rover Sentinel is bullet proof and decked out with under-floor blast protection, armoured glass, spike-proof tyres, a five-litre engine and an emergency escape system.

Manufactured by Land Rover, it can also withstand high velocity armour piercing rounds and 15kg of TNT explosives. It also has a back-up power supply on board.

He was given the costly state-of-the art car along with a security detail by Scotland Yard following threats to his life.

A spokesperson for Mr Khan insisted that the vehicle is not provided by City Hall and that he uses it ‘on police advice due to threats to his safety.’

Transport for London, which will administer ULEZ estimates that nine out of ten cars seen driving in outer London on an average day comply with pollution standards and will be exempt.

But figures obtained by the RAC show more than 690,000 licensed cars in the whole of London are likely to be non-compliant with many drivers either forced to pay the fee each day or scrap their vehicles all together.

To placate angry drivers in London, Mr Khan has introduced a £2,000 scrappage scheme to support them getting a new car that meets standards.

But this does not take into account other types of vehicles or those which enter London from neighbouring counties, who are not entitled to any kind of compensation.

Last month, Mr Khan won a High Court challenge from four outer London boroughs against ULEZ who claimed that it had not been considered properly.

But Mr Justice Swift found in favour of the Mayor and ruled that his plans to expand the zone was legally sound.

A High Court challenge from four outer London boroughs against the ULEZ expansion was rejected last month after Mr Khan’s scheme was found to be legally sound

But critics have continued to maintain that ULEZ is nothing more than a ‘cash grab’ by Mr Khan.

Steve Tuckwell, the Tory MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, whose west London seat will be affected by the levy rollout, said: ‘We’ve known all along that ULEZ expansion was all about the money for Mayor Khan.

‘He needs to come clean and admit his ULEZ expansion is nothing more than a cash grab.’

Fellow Tory Louie French, whose Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency will also be impacted by the expansion, said: ‘Most Londoners can see very clearly that drivers in Greater London are being used as a cash cow to fill the black hole in TfL’s finances caused by seven years of Sadiq Khan.

‘Sadiq Khan’s own independent impact report highlighted that ULEZ expansion to the suburbs would only have a negligible impact on improving air quality.’

Ministers are unable to block the expansion because of powers devolved to Mr Khan in legislation introduced under Sir Tony Blair’s Labour government.

But they are facing calls to re-write this legislation so schemes like ULEZ can be blocked by ministers in future and even retrospectively.

The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.

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