If Rishi Sunak is to have any chance ofwinning the next General Election, then he should be doing a lot more to tapinto people’s growing sense of exasperation with the spiralling costs of NetZero.

That’s the message from my latest ­polling on what ordinary people who took apunt on Boris Johnson in 2019 really think about the expansion of greenpolicies such as the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in London, where the owners ofnon-compliant vehicles must pay £12.50 each time they drive.

Were you to listen only to the expert class, to London Mayor Sadiq Khan or thenew elite who dominate the institutions, then you might be forgiven forthinking that these kinds of policies are incredibly popular among the public. But the reality, as my polling shows, is quite different.

Much like globalisation in the 1990s, or the rise of mass immigration in the2000s and the 2010s, many people today are becoming sceptical, if not outrightopposed, to the spiralling costs of this agenda.

Only one in four say they would like to see a Ulez-type scheme operating intheir own local area. The vast majority would not.

But it’s the coalition of voters from across the political spectrum who backedBoris Johnson and the Conservative Party in 2019 — many of whom are the samepeople who backed Brexit — who are especially opposed to footing the bills forthings such as Ulez and the creeping influence of Net Zero.

These voters, remember, are absolutely critical for Sunak’s chances next year.  Sunak is currently only holding on to half of Johnson’s 2019voters.

Ask people whether they want their leaders in Westminster to prioritise NetZero even if this increases people’s bills or prioritise lowering their billseven if this undermines the quest to achieve Net Zero and the vast majoritystrongly favour the latter.

Only 16 per cent want to prioritise Net Zero.

Ask Conservative voters from 2019 — the very people who will determine whetheror not Sunak remains in power — and just seven per cent want their leaders toprioritise Net Zero while nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) want them toprioritise slashing the cost of living.

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