The Transport Secretary has had her car towed after hitting a pothole described as a "crater worthy of the moon". Heidi Alexander's Mini Cooper struck the gaping fissure late at night as she drove back from a Labour fundraising event. Pictures showed her green vehicle hoisted on to an AA recovery truck last month on the B4437 outside Burford in Oxfordshire.

Speaking to the Sun, Ms Alexander said: "I joked to my husband that I thought that the astronauts on Artemis II might have seen a similar-size crater when they were slingshotting around the Moon last week." She said her ordeal 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 too many drivers are affected by potholes but she blamed local councils, including the Lib Dem-run authority where her accident happened.

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

The bill to fix Britain's roads has now hit a record £18.6billion.

Ms Alexander warned she will not tolerate "second-rate work" and warned that failing authorities could face a backlash if roads do not improve.

The roads minister added: "I expect local councils... will start to feel the wrath of their own public if they're not seeing progress."

Ms Alexander said: "I do think that by the end of this Parliament, drivers should be experiencing a better quality road network."

Some £27billion worth of investment in road infrastructure has been promised as part of a wider strategy.

The Transport Secretary added: "We're going to be addressing the poor quality of road services on major roads as well as local."