London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone, infrastructural populism and the 'war on drivers’ in the UK

This paper traces how right-wing populist media have shaped opposition to climate policy in the UK through the analysis of GB News coverage of the expansion of London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in 2023. Although ULEZ was initially introduced as a public health measure for reducing air pollution, it became a political flashpoint through its framing as symbolic of a broader ‘war on drivers’. Drawing on the concept of ‘infrastructural populism’, this paper focuses on GB News coverage to understand this process through analysis of the broadcaster’s content discussing the ULEZ scheme. Two core narratives are identified. First, the backlash against ULEZ is presented in spatial terms, elevating London’s suburbs as a key site of opposition to the scheme and foregrounding resistance in how ULEZ reordered everyday mobilities in these areas. Second, the ULEZ scheme was positioned beyond its physical infrastructure and, instead, cast as a moral, populist battle with coverage presenting democratic and evidential deficits as part of a ‘war on drivers’. This paper highlights the need to understand contemporary backlash against climate policy as rooted in a growing infrastructural populism that positions new policies as technocratic interventions that reorder everyday life and create both spatial and procedural injustices.