Conservative government “pursued poisonous culture wars” between cyclists and drivers, says new transport secretary – as Labour vows to “take back streets” for all road users

Labour’s Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has vowed to “take back streets” for cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers, after accusing the previous Conservative administration of pursuing “poisonous culture wars against road users of all descriptions”.

Haigh, who promised in July to invest “unprecedented levels of funding” in cycling as part of the new government’s plans to place active travel at the heart of its health and environment policies, was responding to a question in the House of Commons from Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse on the road safety concerns currently discouraging young people from cycling.

“Road safety is one of the main reasons why young people do not cycle,” Hobhouse, the MP for Bath, said in parliament during Thursday’s transport questions.

“This is particularly true for cities like Bath where historic infrastructure makes it very difficult. What will the government do to help young cyclists particularly to make it safer, and make roads safer in Bath?”

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“I’m grateful to her for raising that point and it sits at the heart of our ambition to develop the new road safety strategy,” Haigh responded.

“The previous government pursued poisonous culture wars against road users of all descriptions. We are determined to take back streets for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. And that will be at the heart of our new ambition for the road safety strategy.”

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The Transport Secretary’s criticism of the Conservative approach to active travel whilst in government echoes the plea made by Cycling UK in July for Labour to move away from the “divisive rhetoric” that had plagued road safety and cycling infrastructure discourse in recent years, exemplified by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to stop the so-called “war on the motorist”.

“There is real appetite in the UK to encourage more cycling, more routes, and the building of better infrastructure to ensure people are kept safe while cycling,” Cycling UK chief executive Sarah Mitchell said in the wake of Labour’s general election victory in July.

“The public recognise the benefits and are desperate to enjoy them. With political will and proportionate funding, we can make that future a reality.”

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Mitchell also urged the Labour government to ensure that all road safety policies are evidence-based, something the charity said was not always the case during the latter stages of the previous government, whose swingeing active travel cuts imposed in 2023 were found to have been at least partly influenced by conspiracy theories and disinformation circulating concerning low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), 20mph speed limits, and the 15-minute city concept.

“We are hopeful that this kind of divisive rhetoric will be put to bed once and for all,” Mitchell said.

In 2023, Cycling UK accused Sunak and the Conservatives of capitalising on this divisive rhetoric as part of the government’s ‘Plan for Drivers’ – which, among other things, involved launching a pre-election consultation asking motorists if traffic fines for being “caught out” driving in cycle lanes were “fair” – and using active travel measures such as LTNs as a “political football” to sow division between road users and win votes.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in July 2023, then-PM Sunak said he was on the “side of drivers”, and claimed that “the vast majority of people in the country use their cars to get around and are dependent on their cars.”

In response, Cycling UK’s Mitchell insisted that people want to reduce their dependency on motor vehicles and that interventions such as LTNs enable them to do just that, and that it was “lazy to label LTNs as anti-car”.

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From the cycling charity’s point of view, things have already appeared to improve since Labour took office in the summer.

Louise Haigh (Parliamentary portrait)

In August, recently appointed transport secretary Haigh pledged, despite very little emphasis on active travel during the election campaign, that the government will invest “unprecedented levels of funding” in cycling and walking, as well as developing a new road safety strategy.

Speaking to Laura Laker for a piece in the Guardian, Haigh explained how active travel would form an important part of the government’s approach to improving health and the environment, adding that “walking and cycling and moving more are essential to solving both of these in the immediate term and in the long term”.

“There's lots of evidence to show that will reduce the number of GP appointments by hundreds of thousands, if not millions,” Haigh said. “We absolutely want to make sure that we invest at unprecedented levels.”

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However, before taking on her new role, and providing a welcome boost to active travel campaigners, the MP for Sheffield Heeley was also on the receiving end last November of some criticism for comments she made about cycling, after she responded to a question about whether she was a cyclist herself with the reply, “God no, have you been to Sheffield?” – a response she later insisted was a “light-hearted joke”.

Since then, Haigh has made a point of being photographed cycling on several occasions, including on an e-bike ride though Sheffield’s hills with three-time Olympic gold medallist and South Yorkshire’s active travel commissioner Ed Clancy and, most recently, on the Trans-Pennine Trail (N62) with author and journalist Laker and Active Travel England chief Chris Boardman.