THE founder of a Kidlington technology company has criticised Tony Blair’s former Labour government for their promotion of diesel cars.

Ex-science minister Lord Drayson, of Drayson Racing Technologies, said he believed more should be done to reduce exhaust emissions in the wake of last week’s Volkswagen scandal.

The German car company was forced to admit it had cheated tests in the US by using devices that could detect when they were being tested and change their performance as a result.

Yesterday the company announced it would be suspending the sales of thousands of cars in the UK.

Lord Drayson criticised former prime minister Gordon Brown for introducing lower vehicle tax for diesel cars when he was chancellor in 2001, on the grounds that they were less polluting.

He told the BBC: “We have a much better understanding than we did just a few years ago of the health effects of the products of diesel, and they are literally killing people.

“It is is clear that in retrospect it was the wrong policy and we have got to take action really quite quickly.”

Oxford City Council board member for climate change Cllr John Tanner said although car manufacturers should not deceive their customers, he did not believe suspending sales of the car would have a significant effect in Oxford.

He said: “I think people are very angry about the story and the results from the tests Volkswagen carried out.

“People thought it would be fine to use diesel because it was supposedly better for the environment than petrol, but clearly that has not been the case.”

Oxford VW and Audi garage LMS Motors Ltd said that despite the media reports they had not had anyone coming in for advice on their vehicles.

Other Oxfordshire VW dealers were unavailable for comment.