The Welsh Labor government has been accused of “hypocrisy” after revealing half of its chauffeured car fleet uses diesel

The Welsh Labor government was accused of “hypocrisy” yesterday after it emerged that almost half of its fleet of chauffeur-driven cars are diesel vehicles.

Data obtained by the Daily Mail also shows that Welsh ministers overall travel an average of 375 miles per day in their gas-guzzling fleet.

This comes despite the Welsh government, made up of 14 ministers, introducing a series of “green” road transport measures designed to clean the air, but which have been labeled “anti-car”.

These include blanket speed limits of 20 mph on roads that were previously 30 mph and a ban on all new major road construction projects.

The Welsh Labor executive is also considering a road charge for more polluting vehicles such as diesel models, which emit more harmful pollutants.

The Welsh Labor government was accused of “hypocrisy” yesterday after it emerged that almost half of its fleet of chauffeur-driven cars are diesel vehicles

Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said last year the Welsh government had put forward “a blueprint” for what Labor could do across the UK

Data released following Freedom of Information requests shows five of the Welsh Government’s 12-strong vehicle fleet are diesel vehicles.

Another four are petrol hybrids and three are purely electric vehicles.

Between April 2023 and September 30 this year, Welsh ministers were driven 67,533 miles by chauffeur – or an average of 375 miles per day. In 2022/23 they traveled 159,245 miles, an average of 436 miles per day. This was an increase from 75,390 the previous year.

In its FOI response, the Welsh Government said it could not provide a breakdown of how many total journeys represented kilometers traveled as this would “require locating, retrieving and extracting data from around 5,200 separate data sets”.

Welsh Minister David TC Davies said of the figures: “This is absolutely extraordinary and hypocritical because on the one hand Labor is trying to make it impossible for ordinary people to use their cars, but on the other hand they are more than happy to travel around in diesel-guzzling limousines with chauffeur.’

Welsh minister David TC Davies said: “The Labor Party is trying to make it impossible for ordinary people to use their cars, but then again they are more than happy to travel around in diesel-guzzling chauffeur-driven limousines.”

Under Welsh ministerial law, civil servants can use the state fleet for any purpose.

This includes being picked up from home and taken to their office, provided they “have ministerial papers with them”.

Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said last year the Welsh government had put forward “a blueprint” for what Labor could do across the UK.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “The decarbonisation of the car fleet is progressing, balanced by the need to avoid excessive costs to the taxpayer.”

“Seven diesel cars have already been replaced by three purely electric cars and four hybrid vehicles.

“While ministers always try to use alternative means of transport where possible, it is sometimes necessary to travel by car to attend official government meetings.”

“In addition to security considerations, ministers will continue to work while traveling by car, including taking part in virtual meetings and telephone conversations, which are often confidential in nature.”