Transport Secretary’s car has to be towed after hitting pothole

Heidi Alexander’s Mini Cooper strikes ‘crater worthy of the Moon’ in Oxfordshire



A pothole has taken the Transport Secretary’s car off the road.

Heidi Alexander’s Mini Cooper had to be towed after it hit a “crater worthy of the Moon” while she drove from a Labour fundraiser to her Swindon constituency last month.

She told The Sun: “I joked to my husband that I thought that the astronauts on Artemis II might have seen a similar-sized crater when they were slingshotting around the Moon last week.”

Ms Alexander said the fissure on the B4437 outside Burford in Oxfordshire had brought “added expense and inconvenience”, but admitted: “I think that’s the experience of far too many people in the country at the moment.”

Ms Alexander said the accident highlighted why she made it her “absolute priority to secure decent investment in our roads” when she took the government job in November 2024.

She added: “I expect local councils . . . will start to feel the wrath of their own public if they’re not seeing progress.”

“I do think that by the end of this Parliament, drivers should be experiencing a better quality road network.

“We’re going to be addressing the poor quality of road services on major roads as well as local.”        

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/16/transport-secretary-heidi-alexander-car-towed-pothole/