Labour's Dugher pledges to stand up for white van man on fuel duty and transport policy

Dugher: doesn`t want to be a train-spotter

Dugher: doesn`t want to be a train-spotter

Labour's new shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher has in his first interview in the job pledged to represent "white van man" and "any other road user". 

In the interview in The Mirror today, the day after the coalition Government's £15bn splurge on roads, Dugher says he drives down the A1 from his Barnsley constituency each week in his Vauxhall Astra. He tells the newspaper: "Most politicians don't talk about road users enough and we have got to put this right. The truth is the things that p**s off motorists are the things that p**s me off too."

He declares that whilst he is the "proud" son of a railwayman and is "hugely alert to the importance of rail," he believes that too many of his predecessors have focused on train users commuting into London. He points out that only five per cent of commutes are by rail and 78% of people get to work by car. "I want to be a transport secretary and not a train-spotter and there have been too many train-spotters in the job."

Whilst Dugher vows to not use motorists as a "cash cow," and to crack down on unnecessary road closures, and "stop-start journeys," he does not mention what Labour's stance on road building might be. Dugher has previously promised on his first visit as a shadow minister to set out "exactly where the spending will go" on the transport network.

His comments also come after a Labour shadow minister Emily Thornberry resigned after Tweeting a photo of a white van parked outside a house with three England flags draped on it, interpreted as her sneering at the occupant. At last week's Prime Minister's Question Time Conservatives celebrated their love of 'white van man'. 

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