It’s still a contentious issue, but the third runway at London’s Heathrow airport came one step closer to becoming a reality yesterday with the news that the government has won a vote in favour by 415 votes to 119.
While Tory MPs for the most part followed the party line, there have been a few dissenters along the way, one of the most prominent of which was Home Secretary Boris Johnson. But he had contrived to be in Afghanistan for the vote itself. Other Tory MPs to vote against the runway were former cabinet ministers Justine Greening and Theresa Villiers, Greg Hands - who resigned his post last week as international trade minister - and Adam Afriyie, Sir David Amess, Bob Blackman, Zak Goldsmith and Matthew Offord.
As for Labour, its official position was to oppose the expansion, but its MPs were given a free vote and more voted in favour of the move than against (119 to 96).
An economic boost?
Many are hailing the move as a significant milestone for UK economic growth, particularly coming at a time when the Brexit negotiations are causing instability and some major manufacturers – most significantly, in the past week, Airbus – are threatening to move production elsewhere.
As reported on BBC News, the business group CBI welcomed the vote as “a truly historic decision that will open the doors to a new era in the UK’s global trading relationships.”
The government has claimed that the first full-length runway to be built in the London area for 70 years will be completed at ‘no cost’ to the taxpayer and will create 100,000 jobs.
The environmental costs
But the voices against the new runway, who say it will come at a devastating cost to the environment, are hard to ignore and are showing no intention of remaining silent. Greenpeace UK has said it is ready to join a cross-party group of London councils and London Major Sadiq Khan in a legal challenge.
Speaking to the Guardian last week, former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas – long a highly vocal opponent of the plans – said: “If you measured impact on climate change by each individual action you’d never be able to talk about the cumulative impact of a set of actions on the climate. We know aviation is one of the fastest-growing sources of emissions; we know emissions at altitude are a lot more damaging to the climate than they are at ground level; we know that if Heathrow expands then it’s almost like an arms race between the different airports across Europe, because they’re all in a fight for passengers.”
With this in mind, those concerned about the possible environmental impact are unlikely to be reassured by the – some might say rather weak – environmental protections the government insists will be in place. These include the ability to fine Heathrow or ground aircraft if agreements on night flights or other issues are broken.