Smart motorway hard shoulders would be reinstated on ‘day one’ of a Labour government, party vows

Promise comes as safety concerns grow over roads where there is nowhere to stop in sudden emergencies, writes Colin Drury

The M3 smart motorway near Longcross in Surrey. The motorways have no hard shoulder for emergencies, and use technology to close off lanes (PA)

The scrapped hard shoulder of smart motorways would be reinstated on “day one” of a Labour government, the party’s shadow transport secretary has said.

Some 204 miles of M-roads where the emergency lane has been replaced with a live traffic carriageway would be instantly turned back again, Jim McMahon has told The Independent.

“We are clear,” he said. “On day one of a Labour government, the call will be made to Highways England and we will tell them to put a Red X on that lane, stop traffic using it straight away, and make it a hard shoulder again. On day one.”