Ed Miliband has warned that a third runway at Heathrow Airport may not happen – as Rachel Reeves prepares to throw the government’s weight behind the project.
The energy secretary – who last week denied he would resign if the expansion plan got the go-ahead – said it must be line with the UK’s climate commitments.
He told the Commons’ environmental audit committee: “Any aviation expansion must be justified within carbon budget and if it cannot be justified then it will not take place.”
Barely an hour later, Reeves gave her clearest hint yet that she will back a third Heathrow runway in a major speech on Wednesday.
Speaking to a meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), the chancellor said: “There are always reasons for government to say ‘no’. Over the past six months as Chancellor, my experience is that government has become used to saying ‘no’. That must change. We must start saying ‘yes.’
“Yes to new jobs, yes to higher living standards, yes to investment and yes to growth. And if we get this right – and I know we will – the prize on offer to us is immense.
“Cranes in the sky. High streets revitalised. The next generation with more opportunities than the past. The sounds and the sights of the future arriving. Wealth created, and wealth shared, in every part of Britain.”
A spokesman for the chancellor insisted only one Brentford and Isleworth MP Ruth Cadbury, whose constituency is under the Heathrow flight path, had spoken out against a third runway.
He said: “There was overwhelming support for what Rachel had to say, overwhelming support for the need to build infrastructure, overwhelming support for the government’s agenda to reform the planning system.”
