BERNARD Jenkin, Shadow Minister for Transport, put Toyota's new petrol/electric hybrid car the Prius through its paces this week on London's congested roads.

He said later: 'This car is one of the cleanest in the world yet, under the current system, it would be taxed at the higher level because it has a 1.5-litre engine. It highlights exactly why our policy is for vehicle excise duty to be based on CO2 emissions and not engine capacity as at present.'