A Labour MP has signalled his objection to an expansion of Heathrow Airport, saying that building more runway capacity would not help reach the government’s net zero goals.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has hinted the government would support a third runway at the London airport.
Former shadow climate change secretary Barry Gardiner said: “I think Rachel is wrong to pit decarbonising the economy against economic growth. Decarbonisation is the growth of the future.”
The chancellor told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that “sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand” but said she would not comment on “speculation” about the plans which would be set out in due course.
She added that a third runway at Heathrow would also “mean that instead of circling London, flights can land”.
Reeves is expected to make a major speech on plans to boost the economy this week, as the government seeks to focus its message on growth.
Over the weekend, the government announced plans to fast-track permission for housing and commercial developments near train stations and changes to planning rules, running alongside the rolling back of environmental impact assessments.
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, the government’s growth champion, Labour MP Dan Tomlinson, said the party was “elected on a manifesto that was very clear that growth was our number one focus”.
“We were also clear that we would make very effort to get to clean power by 2030,” he said.
He argued it was possible to simultaneously expand airport capacity and meet climate targets, pointing to technological changes “coming down the track” such as sustainable fuel and electric planes.
Gardiner, who sits on Parliament’s environmental audit committee, argued there was a limit to what technological could achieve.
He said climate experts had concluded there was no way to reach net zero carbon emissions without limiting the aviation sector.
Senior Labour figures, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, have opposed Heathrow expansion plans in the past, while the aviation industry and business chiefs have consistently been in favour.
Asked last week if he would quit if a third Heathrow runway got the go-ahead, Miliband said: “Don’t be ridiculous, no.”
While a revitalisation of the plans to expand the airport represents an about-turn for some in the Cabinet, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who won a third term in 2024 on a platform of opposing airport expansion in the capital, has said his views “haven’t changed” and suggested any plans would need mitigations for noise pollution and carbon emissions.
There is currently no application for a third runway at Heathrow and in December the airport’s boss said the company needed a “clear steer” from the government by the end of 2025 for plans to be taken forward.
Proposals for expansion were initially put forward for consultation in 2007 and a third runway at Heathrow was first approved by the Labour government in 2009.
The plan was scrapped in 2010 by the Conservative-Lib Dem led coalition.
Six years later, a third runway was once again given the green light by Theresa May’s government.
In 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled the decision to allow the expansion was unlawful because it did not take account of climate commitments; however this was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
