Keir Starmer has said he will look at the driving tests crisis if he becomes PM.
The Labour leader admitted “we’ve got to sort out the situation in relation to tests” as young people wait months for tests. He said it was necessary to ensure there are enough skilled driving instructors “to provide the lessons they need”.
Some learner drivers are being forced to travel hundreds of miles to take their driving tests as waiting times hit record highs of more than 20 weeks – around five months – last summer. Many are unable to book tests at all and are forced to rely on checking the website for cancellations.
On a visit to a training centre for mechanics in Grimsby, Mr Starmer said: “Every day I get questions put to me about another thing that’s broken under this government and it does rather raise the question. Is there anything actually that’s working better now than it was 14 years ago? In relation to young drivers obviously we’ve got to sort out the situation in relation to tests so that we’ve got the skilled trainer driving instructors to be there to provide the lessons they need.”
Labour has set out plans to fix up to one million potholes every year as well as crack down on soaring car insurance costs.
Mr Starmer added: “We also need to sort out insurance because a lot of the insurance companies I think are taking advantage of drivers both young and older but if you’re young you don’t have you don’t tend to have so much money. So things like auto renew and keeping down the premiums we want to look at. But also if you’re a young young driver, and you’ve just spent the only money you’ve got on your car, then you hit a pothole, and you’re then paying hundreds of pounds for it to be repaired, that’s probably money that you don’t have. So I think there’s a lot on here for for young drivers.”