Clamp Queen's carriage with Chinese President inside, peer urges

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34594283

Version 0 of 1.

A Conservative peer has argued the Queen's carriage should have been clamped with President Xi Jinping inside to "teach him a lesson" over unpaid parking and congestion fees.

Lord Berkeley said the Chinese embassy owes £2m in congestion charges.

He went on to ask: "Why did Boris not think of clamping the Queen's horse and carriage yesterday, with the president inside it?"

A government minister admitted there was a "legal impasse" in this area.

On Wednesday the Queen and the Chinese president were driven by carriage along The Mall to Buckingham Palace, where the president and his wife have been staying during their state visit.

Lord Berkeley wanted to know "why does TfL not get out and clamp all these Rolls-Royces", later adding: "It might have taught him [President Xi] a lesson."

'Legal impasse'

The government's annual written statement published earlier this year showed the US owed more than £9m and China more than £2m in congestion charges incurred between 2003 and 2014.

Foreign Office Minister Lord Courtown said officials from his department "regularly lobby diplomatic missions about outstanding debts" but reminded the House of Lords that diplomatic vehicles are "inviolable".

He explained that there was "a particular problem at the moment" with the London congestion charge, as "some overseas diplomatic missions consider that it is a tax as opposed to a charge".

"Officials from the Department for Transport and Transport for London continue to press non-paying diplomatic missions to pay the congestion charge, and work to identify a solution to the legal impasse with non-paying missions," the minister insisted.

He also told peers, when quizzed by former head of the Diplomatic Service Lord Wright, that the Foreign Office pays its fines in other countries "as much as it can".