The government has dropped plans for an 80mph speed limit weeks after a minister said that trials could go ahead in 2014.
Patrick McLoughlin, the Conservative transport minister, has ruled out the initiative that was announced at the party conference in 2011, despite the enthusiasm of his junior minister, Stephen Hammond. In 2011, the then transport secretary Philip Hammond said the 70mph limit had been "discredited" and a rise to 80mph would boost the economy.
Earlier Mr Hammond stated that trials of the higher speed limit could be carried out in 2014, followed by its introduction nationwide if they are found to be successful.
"We are thinking about how we could trial it rather than go to a consultation. It would be important to have a good evidence-based trial," he said last week.
However sources close to McLoughlin are now saying: "This is not going to happen with Patrick McLoughlin as transport secretary because Safety is paramount to him and he would not be confident about it." The shadow transport secretary, Maria Eagle, said the government's plans were in chaos.
She said: "Only a week after the roads minister confidently claimed that trials of a new 80mph speed limit were to go ahead, it's clear that the secretary of state has applied the brakes on his own reckless policy."
Downing Street is understood to believe that while the speed increase would be popular with motoring enthusiasts but it could alienate some female voters.
Pressure groups campaigning under the name no to 80 has estimated that raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph could cost society an extra £1bn a year, including £766m in fuel bills and more than £62m in health costs.
Other groups, which include the road safety charity Brake, the Campaign for Better Transport and Greenpeace, also estimated that the higher limit would lead to 25 extra deaths and 100 serious injuries a year, as well as 2.2m more tones of carbon emissions.
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