Four Liberal Democrats and two Tory MPs have written to Heidi Alexander to pre-emptively complain about Reeves’ plans to expand Gatwick, Heathrow, and Luton aeroports. It’s the usual NIMBY guff:
“Life is blighted every single day by the noise of take-offs and landings at Gatwick Airport… We urge you to delay your decision on the Northern Runway Project until proper monitoring infrastructure is in place and the true impact of noise on the lives of our constituents is properly understood.”
The two Tories are local MPs Tom Tugendhat and Andrew Griffith – the latter being the Shadow Business and Trade Sectretary. The first sign of Tory opposition to Reeves’ plans, with the party’s overall position unclear…
Reeves is supported by a collection of Labour MPs known as the Labour Growth Group and opposed by three major Labour figures – Miliband, Khan, and Burnham. That said – Miliband has insisted he would not resign over the issue this time while Khan rolled back on his “legal challenge” rhetoric when it comes to Heathrow, so the picture is confused…
The net zero-obsessed Climate Change Committee says there can be no more added capacity while Downing Street’s line remains that any expansion has to “contribute to economic growth” while upholding “existing environmental obligations.” That one won’t hold…
The Chancellor has an event penned in for next Wednesday in Oxford where she is due to make an announcement relating to the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. These rifts will deepen Guido hears the aeroport expansions are also firmly on the docket…
UPDATE: Andrew Griffith tells Guido he is “‘all in’ on airport expansion” but “no global competitor divvys up capacity between three sub-scale aerodromes. That’s the old growth sapping politics of compromise. As I have long said, if we seriously want a global-growth hub, the answer is a massive and long overdue expansion of Heathrow.” Do it, just not in my etc etc…
Read the full NIMBY letter below:
Continue reading “Shadow Business & Trade Secretary Opposes Airport Expansion as Labour Row Deepens”
In an exchange at the London Assembly with Green AM Zack Polanski this morning Sadiq Khan provided some more detail on his promised “legal challenge” against the government’s rumoured London airport expansion plans:
“There is no money set aside in the budget based on speculation I’ve seen speculation, in the media about a speech the chancellor may give in a few weeks time. I’ve seen no proposals from Heathrow airport, I’ve seen no plans for a new runway, I’ve seen no announcement from the government. What Londoners know and the government knows is the aviation sector is important for growth, jobs, and prosperity – but we face a climate crisis and a climate emergency…. I’m quite clear – my views on the expansion of Heathrow by a new runway haven’t changed.”
Polanksi accused the mayor of rowing back on his more robust statements to the press this week. Wouldn’t be the first time…
If Khan does end up wanting to oppose the government’s plans on aviation expansion it looks like Londoners would have to pay for it. Unlikely the Treasury would cough up for that one…
Over the weekend Sadiq Khan got a lot of attention for equating Trump’s election to the return of fascism:
“We should be in no doubt, this is a perilous moment. The spectre of a resurgent fascism haunts the West … To ward off the far-right, we must be unflinching in defence of our democracy and values, and in our determination to enhance the welfare and material conditions of our communities.”
Much like the London Mayor’s previous tired guff when it comes to the soon-to-be president. The government slapped Khan down on Sunday for the obviously unhelpful comments…
Now less than 48 hours after Khan’s origial Observer article came out, he is briefing in somewhat of a different tone:
“Sir Sadiq said as somebody ‘who believes in democracy, and voting and elections, we should recognise the fact that Donald Trump is the elected President of the United States’. And he insisted he now ‘wanted to work closely with the American President’. But he added: ‘Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this president is different from the last time he was president.'”
That’s as close to a climbdown on Trump as anyone can get out of Khan. How hard did Labour have to twist his arm to get this out?
City Hall’s standards commissioner has said that Khan is under investigation over October’s Taylor Swift controversy. A GLA spokesman says: “The monitoring officer has reviewed the complaint against the mayor and will not be investigating three of the four allegations. An investigation will now take place to establish if the mayor exercised an appropriate level of caution in deciding to accept the tickets.” Susan Hall initiated proceedings by making a formal complaint after details were revealed in the press…
Khan took free tickets for an August Swift concert and later altered the declaration of their value. The three allegations referred to there relate to a late declaration of the tickets, the factual errors in the initial declaration, and whether there was a live contract with agency LS Events (who supplied them). Khan’s spokesman says “the mayor’s office will continue to ensure all the right processes are followed, and looks forward to explaining the approach that was taken in this instance.” Freebies may not worth it for all the blowback…
Sadiq Khan is finally “putting out the hand of friendship” to Donald Trump nearly ten days on from his election win – having first claimed many Londoners would be “fearful” after around 75 million Americans voted for him. Speaking through gritted teeth to LBC’s Chief Bore James O’Brien, the Mayor of London insisted he would generously give Trump “the benefit of the doubt“. Trump must be grateful…
“…Clearly, we know from his record when he was President between 2016 and 2020 and also some of the things he’s campaigned on, there are anxieties that Londoners have, which my job as the Mayor is to articulate those… I think the three things that even Donald Trump’s supporters would agree with is his policies are protectionist, nativist, and unilateralist…
Now JD Vance, Elon Musk and others may have changed their mind about Trump, I haven’t but I’m giving the President-elect the benefit of the doubt and let’s hope, fingers crossed, this President, during this term, is different from the last one…”
In fairness to Sadiq, he’s hardly the only one in Labour who’s had to eat humble pie since last Tuesday…
London Mayor Sadiq Khan clearly didn’t get the memo from Keir Starmer about supporting and working with the next U.S. President. Instead, Khan rushed to issue a moaning statement on Trump’s win, bleating about how “fearful” Londoners supposedly feel about what the result means for democracy and women’s rights. Khan wailed:
“I know that many Londoners will be anxious about the outcome of the US Presidential election. Many will be fearful about what it will mean for democracy and for women’s rights, or how the result impacts the situation in the Middle East or the fate of Ukraine. Others will be worried about the future of NATO or tackling the climate crisis…The lesson of today is that progress is not inevitable. But asserting our progressive values is more important than ever – re-committing to building a world where racism and hatred is rejected, the fundamental rights of women and girls are upheld, and where we continue to tackle the crisis of climate change head on.”
Leader of City Hall Conservatives Neil Garratt was quick to slam Khan’s insulting statement:
“It’s important to recognise the legitimate winner of a free and fair election, and the peaceful handover of power. These are not things everyone in the world can take for granted, we should not attempt to undermine them.The fact remains that the Mayor’s job is to focus on delivering for London…Londoners will see through him trying to use the American election as a ruse to distract from his own failures in office, including his failure to negotiate a good deal for London with his own Labour government.”
Latest on Labour’s contribution to the “special relationship” as we get it…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”