Prime Minister Andy Burnham has declined to state whether he supports plans for a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport.
The Government led by his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, endorsed the third runway project at Heathrow, the UK's largest and busiest airport, as a way to boost the economy. Former chancellor Rachel Reeves announced her backing in a major speech, saying it would create 100,000 jobs.
However, Mr Burnham was not willing to confirm his support for the project in an interview marking the start of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Consultation first
“Principally, it’s a matter for London and Londoners,” he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg when asked if he would back the move.
He deflected questions about his views, saying he would wait for the outcome of a consultation process on the matter. “It’s not right for me to just jump straight in on the back of the consultation,” he said.
He later added: “I think it’s right that we hear what people have said through the consultation, and then consider the way forward from there.”
Timeline pushed back
The 2035 deadline for the runway project has been pushed back by four years, with airport bosses understood to have told the Government that meeting the deadline set by Ms Reeves is not possible. The airport aims to secure planning permission by 2029, and from that point believes building the new runway within a decade to be a reasonable goal.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said earlier this week that an expanded Heathrow could be “the country’s front door” to tourists from China and India. She told The Telegraph that the climate impact of increased flights from the new runway could be offset “holistically” elsewhere in the economy.
Minister backs expansion
Economic growth minister Dan Tomlinson backed Heathrow expansion, joking that it was because his child enjoyed plane-watching. He told a fringe event at the party conference: “As growth minister, I think you might be all wondering what my view is on Heathrow and I want to tell you that as a London MP, a London MP who lives under the flight path, that I am very pro-Heathrow expansion.”
He added: “I want to tell you the reason, and it is because my two-year-old, the only way I can get him away from the television is to take him into the back garden and watch the planes flying overhead.”
