Tory leader William Hague arrived in traffic-clogged Oxford today to attack Government "anti-car policies".

Mr Hague said only a U-turn by Tony Blair could now save Britain from even worse road chaos.

"Big cuts in the roads programme will increase the very congestion and pollution that the Government says it is against," said the Conservative leader.

"We need to reduce dependency on the car. But creating more traffic jams is not the way to achieve the objective."

He rejected the idea of energy and transport taxes. "The danger is that if you make British business less competitive you don't improve its environmental impact - you make it go bust. "The Government's anti-car policies are a glaring example of misguided environmentalism. Research has shown that very large increases in road fuel taxes will have next to no effect on car use.

"These extra taxes simply hit the most vulnerable car users, such as pensioners, the low paid, disabled people and people who live in the country."

Mr Hague, who read philosophy and economics at Oxford, was addressing University scientists at the department of Zoology.

He went on to set out a new "blue green" Tory strategy for the environment, claiming water privatisation as a major green success story.

He said: "The water companies have been able to spend far more on cleaner standards and lower leakages."

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