Leonardo DiCaprio goes up against Boris Johnson as he praises new Ulez, and we bet that wasn’t on your bingo card-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

In news you didn’t expect, it’s Leonardo DiCaprio vs. Boris Johnson thanks to the ULEZ expansion (Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty)

In perhaps unexpected news, actor and climate campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio praised London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, after Boris Johnson and Tory MPs deemed it a ‘smash and grab raid on drivers’.

We bet you didn’t think those two names would be in the same sentence.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan made the decision to further expand the Ulez across Greater London, which means that, from August 2023, more motorists will face a £12.50 daily charge to drive into the capital and its surrounding boroughs.

In a Facebook post, the Hollywood star, 48, praised the London Mayor, writing: ‘[The expansion] will mean five million more people breathing cleaner air.’

‘[Expanding the Ulez] will help to build a better, greener, fairer London for everyone,’ he added.

This apparently pits him against the former PM and former London Mayor Johnson, who, alongside Conservative MPs, wrote a letter to The Telegraph, hitting out at the expansion.

Johnson says the ULEZ was never intended to apply to outer London (Picture: PA)

The new zone (Picture: TfL)

The letter read: ‘The Ulez was never intended to apply to outer London. This is a smash and grab raid on drivers’ wallets.’

It continued: ‘This has nothing to do with air quality and everything to do with Khan’s mismanagement of Transport for London’s finances.’

‘And it comes at the worst possible time for household income,’ read the letter, which was signed by several Conservative MPs.

The ULEZ was formally introduced in 2019 (Picture: Getty Images)

Currently, the Ulez extends only as far as the North and South Circular roads, but new plans will see the expansion zone reach the M25 ring road.

Nick Rodgers, the GLA Conservatives transport spokesperson, said DiCaprio ‘might not understand the devastating cost of living impact the ULEZ expansion will have.’

DiCaprio and Khan have a shared history when it comes to the Mayor’s climate change schemes, having met last year at Glasgow’s COP26 summit.

In 2019, DiCaprio congratulated Khan after the launch of Ulez in London, tweeting that ‘clean air is a human right’.

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It comes after the actor, best known for his work in classic films such as Titanic, The Wolf of Wall Street, and countless others, praised Chester Zoo on social media last week after it worked in collaboration with a Mexican university to ‘resurrect’ a Mexican fish species on the annual Day of the Dead festival.

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