Transport Secretary’s car damaged by ‘moon crater’ pothole in latest blow to Britain’s crumbling roads

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was left stranded after her car was wrecked by what she described as a “moon crater” pothole in Oxfordshire.

The Cabinet minister’s green Mini Cooper was left undriveable after hitting the crater on the B4437 near Burford late at night, as she returned from a Labour fundraising event last month.

Images showed the damaged vehicle being loaded onto an AA recovery truck following the incident.

Ms Alexander later joked the pothole was comparable to one spotted in space, telling The Sun: “I thought that the astronauts on Artemis II might have seen a similar-size crater when they were slingshotting around the Moon last week.”

But she admitted the breakdown - which caused “added expense and inconvenience” - reflected a much wider issue across Britain’s roads.

“I think that's the experience of far too many people in the country at the moment,” she said.

The incident underscores the growing crisis facing the UK’s road network, with the national repair backlog now estimated at £18.6billion.

Industry figures show just over half of local roads are in acceptable condition, with some only resurfaced once every 97 years.

Ms Alexander said the episode reinforced why fixing Britain’s roads has been her top priority since taking office in November 2024.

The Government has earmarked £27billion for transport infrastructure across the country.

Councils now risk losing up to a third of their pothole funding if they fail to prove money is being spent on repairs.

Of a £1.6billion pot, around £525million could be withheld from underperforming authorities.

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Ms Alexander warned “second-rate work” would not be tolerated, adding councils could face public backlash if improvements are not delivered.

“I expect local councils… will start to feel the wrath of their own public if they’re not seeing progress,” she said.

She insisted motorists should begin to notice improvements before the next general election.

Earlier this year, the AA said pothole-related call outs had surged by more than 18 per cent across the country.

More than 6,200 pothole-related incidents were recorded in the East of England alone in January.

Mobile tyre fitter George Mircas told the BBC: "The potholes are absolutely crazy - the roads have got so bad over the last year.

"Recently, on the M25 at Potters Bar there was a massive pothole in the middle of the motorway and eight cars had damaged tyres. It's very risky."

Meanwhile, in Suffolk, 30 vehicles were damaged by a single pothole on the same night in February.

Julie Williamson, who hit the pothole, said: "It took me three hours to get the AA [to arrive] and to get home because they had so many calls.

"The road was full of AA vans and RAC vans."

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