Government ditches plans to raise motorway speed limit to 80mph amid safety concerns and fears it will alienate women voters

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin says the plan is 'not a priority'

It was launched with fanfare in 2011 amid claims it would boost economy

But polling shows significant numbers of women were against the move



Plans to raise the motorway speed limit to 80mph have been consigned to the slow lane amid fears it may alienate women voters and increase risks on the road.

The policy was launched with a fanfare in 2011 by then transport secretary Philip Hammond, who claimed the 70mph limit had been 'discredited' and a rise to 80mph would boost the economy.

But Patrick McLoughlin, who now fills the Cabinet post, says the move is no longer a priority.

Cars whizz along the M25: A plan to increase the motorway speed limit to 80mph, first mooted just two years ago, has been ditched over fears it would increase risks on the road and alienate women voters

The decision will anger many drivers who, polling shows, mostly want higher speeds, but it has already been welcomed by road safety groups and environmental campaigners.

In an interview with The Times today, Mr McLoughlin said the plan had been ditched.

'Look, that's not a priority, to be absolutely honest,' he said. 'You would have to do trials in certain areas so it's not something that's a high priority.'

A source close to the Transport Secretary told the newspaper: 'This is not going to happen with Patrick McLoughlin as Transport Secretary.

'Safety is paramount to him and his view of how to run the roads and he would not be confident about how you would do it.'

The Prime Minister's inner circle is said to fear that an increase in the speed limit could alienate women voters. Polls have shown a majority of drivers would support the move, but significant numbers of women were against it.

Mr Hammond had originally announced the plan at the 2011 Tory party conference, saying the 70mph limit had resulted in millions of motorists routinely breaking the law, undermining the principle of policing by consent.

'Safety is paramount to him': Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, who said the plan to increase the limit was 'not a priority'

He said: 'The limit was introduced way back in 1965 - when the typical family car was a Ford Anglia.'

He claimed a rise to 80mph would 'restore the legitimacy' of the system and benefit the economy by 'hundreds of millions of pounds'.

Former roads minister Mike Penning last May said he would set up trials for the higher speed limit on parts of the motorway network, and only last week Stephen Hammond, his successor, told a motoring forum the plan was still alive.

The RAC said it was disappointed with the decision to drop the speed limit increase. Motoring groups had argued that 80mph is a safe speed in a modern car, providing drivers leave enough room between vehicles.

But last year campaign groups estimated that raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph would cost society an extra £1billion a year, including £766million in fuel bills and more than £62million in health costs.

The groups, which include road safety charity Brake, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) and Greenpeace, also estimated that the higher limit would lead to 25 extra deaths and 100 serious injuries a year, as well as 2.2 million more tonnes of carbon emissions.



Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: 'The real stumbling block is likely to have been enforcement.



'Police already tend to give speeding drivers some leeway, so it was quite feasible that an 80 mph limit would have actually meant 90 mph in practice and that proved a step too far for ministers.'

Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said: 'The chaos over plans to change motorway speed limits is extraordinary, even by the Department for Transport's usual standards.



'Only a week after the Roads Minister confidently claimed that trials of a new 80mph speed limit were to go ahead, it's clear that the Secretary of State has applied the brakes on his own reckless policy.



'Labour has consistently warned that a blanket increase in the motorway speed limit risked increasing deaths and serious injuries, pushing up the cost of driving and making it harder to cut the emissions that contribute to climate change.



'The ending of all Government funding for road safety and speed cameras, while slashing the numbers of road traffic police, meant there was no realistic prospect of any increase being credibly enforced.

