UK ministers urged to 'come clean' on when they were informed about VW emissions scandal

Greenpeace has written to the Government to ask if it knew about the cheating of emissions tests before this month

Volkswagen has set aside €6.5bn to cover the scandal (AP)

UK ministers have been told to “come clean” on when they were first informed about the Volkswagen scandal.

Labour’s shadow Transport Secretary Lilian Greenwood claimed the response of the Department for Transport (DfT) that diesel cars would be re-tested in the UK was “unacceptable”.

Environmental group Greenpeace has written to the Government to ask if it knew about the cheating of emissions tests before this month. Ms Greenwood said: “Ministers must come clean and admit when they were first told about the diesel emissions scandal. The International Council on Clean Transportation, the body which helped to expose the problem, warned a year ago that dangerously high levels of nitrogen oxide emissions were not confined to America.”

A DfT spokesman said the UK Government has been “at the forefront of action at a European level” to introduce updated emissions testing.