Sadiq Khan has said he remains opposed to the building of a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
Labour’s Mayor of Greater London expressed concerns about the “severe impact” it would have on noise, air pollution and climate change targets.
The comments came after chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in a major speech that she would be backing proposals for Heathrow’s expansion. “A third runway is badly needed”, she insisted.
In a statement, Khan responded: “I remain opposed to a new runway at Heathrow Airport because of the severe impact it will have on noise, air pollution and meeting our climate change targets.
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“I will scrutinise carefully any new proposals that now come forward from Heathrow, including the impact it will have on people living in the area and the huge knock-on effects for our transport infrastructure.
“Despite the progress that’s been made in the aviation sector to make it more sustainable, I’m simply not convinced that you can have hundreds of thousands of additional flights at Heathrow every year without a hugely damaging impact on our environment.”
Confirming the government’s support for a third runway on Wednesday morning after weeks of speculation, Reeves said: “I can confirm today that this government supports a third runway at Heathrow and is inviting proposals to be brought forward by the summer.
“We will then take forward a full assessment through the airport national policy statement. This will ensure that the project is value for money and our clear expectation is that any associated service transport costs will be financed through private funding.
“It will ensure that a third runway is delivered in line with our legal, environmental and climate objectives.”
In 2018, Khan, city councils and environmental groups applied for a judicial review against the plans for a third runway approved by Theresa May’s then-government earlier that year.
In 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled the expansion decision was unlawful as it did not take climate commitments into account.
However, later that year the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court after Heathrow appealed it, allowing a planning application to go ahead.
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Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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