All three of the UK’s major political parties are now officially opposed to a third runway at Heathrow airport, with Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary announcing the party is dropping its support for the expansion.
Labour’s 2010 manifesto, published when Gordon Brown was still Prime Minister, stated that “We support a third runway at Heathrow, subject to strict conditions on environmental impact and flight numbers, but we will not allow additional runways to proceed at any other airport in the next Parliament”.
But according to media reports, the party’s Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle will today officially drop support for expansion, stating that "the local environmental impact means this is off the agenda".
The Conservative-Lib Dems coalition officially scrapped plans for a third runway at Heathrow when they came into power last year, committing themselves instead to a new high-speed rail network connecting London and Heathrow with cities including Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.
According to a report by the BBC today, Maria Eagle will propose an alternative route to the £32bn national high-speed rail link favoured by the coalition. The reports syas that the alternative "would still run from London Euston to Birmingham but would follow the M40 and Chiltern line in parts".
Report by Mark Caswell
