A former Labour transport minister has been reported to police after he was accused of using his mobile phone while driving towards Parliament.
The party’s justice spokesman Sadiq Khan, an award-winning road safety campaigner, allegedly looked down at his phone while at the wheel.
A picture sent to the police appeared to show the 44-year-old MP for Tooting, who is expected to seek nomination as Labour’s London mayoral candidate, with his phone in his hand as he drove a grey Volkswagen car yesterday morning.
Conservative MP Justin Tomlinson wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe to call for an investigation.
Mr Khan was this year named road safety parliamentarian of the month in March by the charity Brake.
Accepting the award, he said he had ‘campaigned to make our roads safer’ during his nine years as an MP.
Ed Miliband’s roads spokesman Richard Burden this summer called for a year-long ban for anyone caught using their mobile phone while behind the wheel.
A witness claims he saw Mr Khan ‘driving a grey VW… clearly checking text or email messages on his phone several times’.
The witness took a photograph of what appeared to be Mr Khan at around 9am yesterday before watching him drive along Albert Embankment towards the Houses of Parliament.
Last night Mr Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, wrote to Sir Bernard ‘to report a breach of laws governing the use of a mobile when in control of a motor vehicle and potentially dangerous driving’.
He wrote: ‘I would be very grateful if you could investigate this further – road safety is a serious issue and those who make the laws should certainly not be above them.’
Caught: Mr Khan, seen here with Ed Miliband, was using his mobile phone while driving, despite being named National Road Safety Campaigner of the Year by the charity Brake
A spokesman for Brake said: ‘It is important that public figures set a positive example of safe driving behaviour, and it is disappointing if any politician fails to do so, particularly when they have a strong record of road safety work in the past.’
The AA last week warned that mobile phone use by drivers had reached ‘epidemic’ proportions.
Figures show fatal accidents in which a driver using a mobile phone was a contributory factor increased from 17 in 2012 to 22 in 2013 – a rise of 29 per cent, or five deaths.
All accidents in which mobile phone use has played a part rose from 378 to 422 – an increase of 10 per cent.
Mr Khan did not respond to a request to comment.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2819619/Ed-s-road-safety-champion-drove-mobile-Sadiq-Khan-reported-police-spotted-looking-phone-way-Parliament.html#ixzz3OjkXV8xs
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