The Shadow Transport Secretary has slammed Labour for engaging in a war on motorists and outlined the Conservatives’ plans for the transport sector.

Speaking during the Conservative Party Conference, Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden spoke of his personal history with cars and the motoring industry.

He recounted passing his driving test first time, before purchasing his first car, a Citroen AX, which he said was “as unreliable as a Labour Party election pledge”.

The MP for Basildon and Billericay emphasised that the Conservatives wanted all Britons to have freedom, which extended to their travel habits.

Speaking in Manchester this afternoon, he said: “It’s not just that Labour doesn’t care about our road networks or the drivers who use them, it’s that Labour are actively punishing motorists at every turn in our country.

“Labour is waging an ideological war on every motorist, motorcyclist, our freight and haulage sector, and anyone who does not address them as ‘comrade’.”

Mr Holden pledged to fight back against Labour’s electric vehicle plans, in addition to sustainability goals.

He confirmed that the Conservatives were “dead set” against the Labour Government’s plan to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars by the end of the decade.

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The Conservatives would also overturn Labour’s £650million Electric Car Grant, which was recently introduced to help motorists save up to £3,750 off a new EV under £37,000.

The Shadow Transport Secretary took aim at the incentive, saying that it was taxpayers’ money being used to fund car production in other countries.

He said: “The worst thing about it, they’ve told us it will drive job creation in Britain. But the truth is that aside from a few small-run van-based models that qualify for the lowest level of support, every car, every single car, the Government is giving a grant to buy is produced abroad.

“In Romania, in France, in Italy, In Japan. We are sending taxpayers’ money, your money, to other countries so that their workers can produce cars that are then sold in our country.”

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The Conservatives voted against the introduction of the Electric Car Grant, with Mr Holden confirming that, if they are elected back into power, they would stop the scheme.

The MP said the Tories were “unashamedly” on the side of the “passenger, the driver, the taxpayer and the British worker”.

Mr Holden also targeted Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and the speech she delivered at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week.

Ms Alexander clarified that Labour has never, and would never, declare war on motorists across the UK.

In response, Richard Holden said: “Most damningly, the Transport Secretary in her speech at Labour’s conference didn’t even mention the freight sector, didn’t mention them.

“Not one mention of the lorries, shipping, rail freight, commercial vehicles, vans, road haulage, the backbone of our country.

“Not once, despite giving her speech almost 200 years to the day that Britain led the world with the first public freight railway opened – The Stockton to Darlington railway.

“How typically Labour. Ignoring British business, ignorant of Britain’s history,” he told the conference hall.