Sadiq Khan’s much-hated Ulez expansion sparked violence on the streets of London today between protesters who can’t afford to pay the charges and the police.

The flashpoint erupted outside Downing Street where campaigners against paying just to drive through their home city had been for much of the day.

It comes hours before the Ulez expansion, affecting all 32 boroughs, will come into effect from midnight, seeing people having to pay a £12.50 daily charge to drive the most polluting vehicles around the capital. 

Shocking footage saw police scuffling with some of the protesters as tempers flared over the controversial expansion which is set to bring an extra £2.5 million a day to City Hall and raise billions in the coming years. 

Retired builder John Davies, 66 said: ‘Sadiq Khan is robbing me of my pension. He is taxing the poor and it’s all based on lies.

‘I’m a pensioner. I’m 60 per cent disabled and I’m struggling to pay my bills

‘This man has lied time after time. He doesn’t account for his actions and he has nothing but contempt for ordinary people. It’s disgusting.

‘I’ve worked all my life since I was 15 – 51 years of working my guts out.. I have a van that they say is non-compliant. It’s a 2009 diesel. The emissions are no different from the vehicles they say are compliant. He’s just plucked out a date from the air and it’s poorer people who can’t afford newer vehicles that are being punished. It’s disgraceful.

‘He’s conning us out of our hard earned money. I only drive 3,00 to 4,000 miles a year. I don’t do the mileage to cause a lot of pollution yet they want me to pay £12.50 a day. It’s outrageous.

‘I’m living on a state pension of £186-a-week.’

Khan’s Ulez dream got off to a troubled start this morning as dozens of cameras designed to catch non-compliant vehicles were vandalised.

Protesters who are against the scheme have damaged and destroyed cameras across London by spraying them with paint, covering the lenses, cutting wires and even demolishing the poles they stand on.

In Bromley more than a dozen cameras were vandalised before the expansion came into effect at midnight, while residents living in Chessington welcomed the CCTV installed on their street being taken out of action by vigilantes.

At midday protesters against the move gathered outside Downing Street in central London to voice their discontent as the backlash continues to grow – with police even seen grapping with the activists at one point.

And this morning the Transport for London (TfL) number plate checker website slowed to a crawl under the sheer number of people trying to see if their cars are non-compliant.

It comes as the Mayor of London insisted he was not ‘anti-car’ for implementing the expansion, which means people will have to pay £12.50 a day to drive certain vehicles into the city.

These include diesel vehicles from 2014 or earlier, petrol vehicles from 2006 or earlier and motorcycles from 2001 or earlier, although vehicles from 1973 or earlier are exempt.

The move, which Mr Khan says will help battle pollution in the capital, will bring an extra £2.5million a day into City Hall and is set to raise billions in the coming years. Tories have branded the policy a ‘money-raising exercise’ with Transport Secretary Mark Harper saying he would have blocked it if he had the power.

The expansion it has been vociferously fought against by charities, Tory councils and residents in outer London, with the mayor even resisting pressure from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to delay it amid the cost of living crisis. 

These fears have been reflected in residents caught up in the expansion of the zone, with some saying they fear not being able to afford a new cars due to the cost.

Anti-Ulez demonstrators outside Downing Street today were seen carrying placards saying ‘Stop the Toxic Air Lie’ and ‘Ulez all about money’, while others carried mocked-up car registration plates reading: ‘Get Khan out’.

Dozens of activists lined the road leading to Downing Street in the centre of the capital, blowing whistles and banging drums.

Among those in attendance were GB News presenter and former politician Nigel Farage, Reform UK’s leader Richard Tice, as well as conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn.

Husband and wife Tom and Carolyn Dare were among the crowd outside Downing Street on Tuesday to protest against Ulez.

Ms Dare said she wanted Rishi Sunak to ‘overrule Sadiq Khan’.

‘He has got the power. They can get rid of a Prime Minister, anytime they like,’ she said, adding she felt the Conservatives were using the issue to fight Labour and to help them win the next election ‘but they are hurting a lot of people’.

The pair said the new charge was a significant portion of their weekly pension.

Mr Dare said the mayor was ‘shutting down London basically’.

‘A lot of people come to theatres of a night, but it’s going to cost them more money to come to the theatre. Or if you want to pop out to meet family or relatives, it is going to cost you money, all the time’

‘At our age, we can’t afford to get a new loan to get a new car.’

Protesters dressed as pallbearers carried a coffin to Downing Street as they mourned ‘the death of democracy’ over the Ulez.

Hundreds of people lines the streets waving placards which insisted the Mayor’s ‘toxic air lie’ was really ‘all about the money’.

Police stood guard nearby as demonstrators joined in chants of ‘Get Khan Out. Get Khan Out’.

Minicab driver Prabhdeep Singh, 41, who staged a week-long hunger strike outside Uxbridge tube station in protest at the scheme, said: ‘Khan has been running things like a dictatorship. The government has done nothing to stop it and the leader of the Labour Party has just asked Khan to reflect on it – that is a lack of leadership. He is washing his hands of it.’

Mr Singh, who previously worked in the British army in the dental corp, said his livelihood is being taken away from him by the scheme.

Mr Singh, who lives in Reading and drives a 2015 plate Vauxhall Insignia, said he cannot afford to travel to Heathrow and says he will have to pay £18,000 for a used Ulez compliant car.

He said: ‘I have two young children and I cannot work. How many others are in the same position?’

Bus driver Kingsley Hamilton, of the protest group Action Against Unfair Ulez, said: ‘It’s a very sad day. It’s an attack on working class people.

‘The government could have intervened but they have done nothing. We are not going to forgive them for this.

‘Democracy is dead because Sadiq Khan has ignored consultation and the will of the people.

’It’s almost like he has the power to do what the hell he likes.

‘It makes me realise the Labour Party is not the party of the people any more.

‘We are not against clean air. I’m against this flawed Ulez.’

Retired foster carer Cindy Evans, 65, from Dartford, Kent, said: ‘I live just outside the zone but it doesn’t matter – I know a scam where I see one.

‘I have to drive inside the zone to go shopping, to go to my evening classes and to look after my elderly aunt who is housebound.

‘The government has the power to veto the mayor’s proposals but they have done nothing about it.

‘The vast majority of people oppose the Ulez in consultations which the mayor promised to abide by but he just ignored them. This really is the death of democracy and it’s a very sad day. We’ve been lied to time and time again.’

Retired Fredereck Hunt, who dressed in black, described himself as ‘the chief mourner’ as he walked alongside the cardboard casket.

Mr Hunt, 70, said: ‘It is the death of democracy and freedom. What Sadiq Khan has done is totally disgusting – beyond words. I’m doing this for my grandchildren’s freedom – for future generations.

‘It is the poor and vulnerable that have suffered the most until now. People who have worked all their lives cannot afford to pay this tax but my concern is that the wishes of the people have just been ignored.

‘Sadiq Khan has behaved like a dictator and this is going to have an impact long into the future.’

Mr Hunt, from Wallington, Surrey, said: ‘It feels like a day of mourning. I drive a 2006 ‘non-compliant’ Volvo estate. We already pay through road pax. Some vehicles pay zero because they are said to be less polluting. I pay £395 a year. This is just another way of grabbing more money from you. It’s a con.’

Retired builder John Davies, 66, said: ‘Sadiq Khan is robbing me of my pension. He is taxing the poor and it’s all based on lies. I’m a pensioner. I’m 60 per cent disabled and I’m struggling to pay my bills.

‘This man has lied time after time. He doesn’t account for his actions and he has nothing but contempt for ordinary people. It’s disgusting.

‘I’ve worked all my life since I was 15 – 51 years of working my guts out.. I have a van that they say is non-compliant. It’s a 2009 diesel. The emissions are no different from the vehicles they say are compliant. He’s just plucked out a date from the air and it’s poorer people who can’t afford newer vehicles that are being punished. It’s disgraceful.

‘He’s conning us out of our hard earned money. I only driv