Sir Richard Branson’s call for the speed limit on motorways to be slashed to 60mph to beat Vladimir Putin is as wrong-headed as it is apparently hypocritical.

The Virgin boss, 71, this week suggested that we could save Ukraine by slashing our energy use, arguing that by driving more slowly, motorists would reduce fuel consumption as one way to reduce “our dependence on Russian oil, gas and coal”.

Would this be the same billionaire entrepreneur who has advocated blasting passengers into space at great environmental cost and was such a Remainiac that he ranted after Brexit that, within five years, Britain would be back in the European Union again?

It’s not Britain’s dependence on Russian energy that’s the problem – it’s the EU’s!

I hope that, given successive German chancellors have practically bankrolled Putin and his war machine with their crack-like addiction to Kremlin kilowattage, Sir Richard, from the comfort of his Caribbean island, is also minded to tell the Germans to slow down on their speed-limitless autobahn?

If I had my way, I would put speed limits on British motorways up, not down. Notwithstanding the Government’s psychopathic smart motorways – which should all be scrapped and the hard shoulder reinstated – they are the safest roads in the UK.

According to the RAC, motorways carry around 19 per cent of traffic, but only account for 5 per cent of fatalities.

There’s a lovely stretch of the southbound M11 after you pass M25 where you could comfortably drive a lot faster than 70mph.

On a clear day, the same could be said for huge swathes of the M1, M4 and M40. Why not trust motorists to do the right thing, rather than constrain them?