Net Zero vs Growth: Sadiq Khan to Lead Labour Rebellion Against Reeves Over Heathrow Expansion
Rachel Reeves’s growth agenda has clashed with Net Zero as London Mayor Sadiq Khan prepares to lead a Labour rebellion against the Chancellor’s backing for a third runway at Heathrow over environmental concerns. The Telegraph has more.
Sir Sadiq is expected to make clear his opposition to Heathrow expansion as early as Wednesday, when he answers questions before the London Assembly.
It follows reports that the Chancellor will back the long-delayed runway as part of a scramble to revive the struggling economy, as well as supporting plans to double capacity at Gatwick and Luton.
The proposals are likely to prove politically toxic within Labour, which is committed to a drastic reduction in carbon emissions as part of the shift to Net Zero. Seven Cabinet ministers including Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister; Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary; and Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, have previously opposed Heathrow’s expansion.
It is expected to draw fierce resistance from supporters of the shift to Net Zero, as reduced emissions from air travel are a key part of the Government’s plan to go green.
The Climate Change Committee, the Government’s key adviser on tacking CO2, warned on Tuesday against a rush to expand airport capacity without first making air travel itself more sustainable.
A spokesman for Sir Sadiq said: “The Mayor has a long-standing opposition to airport expansion around London – linked to the negative impact on air quality, noise and London’s ability to reach Net Zero by 2030.”
Mr Miliband and other Cabinet ministers have not yet commented on the proposals, but senior backbenchers and campaigners have been quick to condemn them.
Ruth Cadbury, a Labour MP and Heathrow sceptic who chairs the Transport Select Committee, said the Government was “jumping the gun” in seeking to push through three airport projects at the same time.
The Climate Change Committee, which has a statutory role in advising the Government, meanwhile reiterated that there must be no airport expansion unless emissions are cut fast enough to allow extra flights without undermining the agreed carbon-reduction pathway.
Ms Reeves may publicly back a third Heathrow runway and indicate her support for the Gatwick and Luton proposals later this month. The Chancellor is considering setting out her support in a speech on economic growth, Bloomberg reported.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Bank of England should be freed from Net Zero rules to help grow the economy, Rachel Reeves has been told by the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
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I like the idea of a ‘Heathrow sceptic’ – but surely they mean a ‘Heathrow Denier’?
Good. The Left, as usual, destroying itself in a civil war.
Or merely Rachel Thieves trying to paint herself as “pro economy”.
The plus side to this Labour Party bickering is that it means people will have nut zero in their faces and given that the khant does not understand hypocrisy this should provide some wonderful publicity.
Nice, lefties eat yourselves!
Get out the popcorn 🍿
The Lord and lady sharks are going to get more and more avaricious,
Kier is above all this frothing turmoil just below the surface..for now,,,floating on that same surface does not guarantee safety ..sh🦈rk ….der da…der…dat..da da da….it will catch up!
Stupid khants.
Boris island was always a better idea.
Expanding that loathsome airfield at LHR is a horrific idea.
I always thought “Boris Island” made a lot of sense as a long term solution
The Boris Island was a stupid idea from an ignorant man.
I’m no planning expert but it made sense to me – if you want expansion capacity into the long term, don’t put an airport right in the middle of a busy city.
I doubt it was Johnson’s idea.
👍
Can I speak up for Birmingham, its the second city and yet its Airport is pathetically small. Successive Governments say they want to provide more for the North in terms of job creation and ability to travel and yet they ignore development outside of London.
London gets enough and all they do is under Khan squander it, there are millions of people in the midlands and north of the midlands who would love the work and would welcome the increase in prosperity travellers would bring in. But as always if its not London it don’t count to Westminster
I’m no expert on these things but if something could be done to take the pressure off house prices in London and the South East I think it would be helpful.
Since when has Heathrow been in the middle of a busy city? It’s right on the western fringes, and away from other significant airports, but has excellent transport links. Compare that with the North Kent coast, which is less accessible, and where the aircraft would be in direct conflict with those using London City and Southend.
Fair point – not the middle but still in a densely populated residential area.
One of Bojoke,s better ideas ! Also he had Trump moment with his 80 seat majority & he blew it ………
Sorry but the vast majority of people don’t live in sh!thole Londinistan and don’t care what they do with Heathrow, the ‘capital’ is a lost city, abandon it.
Anyone that does still live there..leave while you still can!
I left London but I think it’s not exactly a “shithole” – though it is declining. Depends what part you live in. I left mainly to get away from metro liberals. Jolly nice people but insufferable.
I’ve worked there many times over the years and true cockneys and londoners are the salt of the earth, but their city has been pulled out from under them and given away to those who couldn’t give a flying one about the place
I guess when I lived there, which was for 55 years from birth, it was mainly in middle class areas which were mixed. Had I grown up in a poorer area that subsequently became predominantly immigrant I might feel differently. But the poor areas of London had their downsides when they were 100% white when my dad was growing up in the 20s.
I get your point(and your first hand experience)but you must agree that, although never perfect, it was a better city then than it is now? Things like knife crime was never the norm even amongst the poorest, and that’s when most kids carried pen knives! as did i
Yes totally agree with that.
My dad didn’t mention knife crime, think the violence was more limited to fisticuffs in his day.
Too many people, too many cars, too many migrants, too many beggars, too much crime, no room to swing a cat—-SHITHOLE.
I guess it depends on your preferences. Some people like crowds. But I agree it could be a lot better.
I disagree about no room – it’s a lot greener and more spacious than many cities.
The ‘independent’ Bank of England should not be involved in Net Zero at all and be free to point out when those policies damage the UK economy. Whether Two Tier, Thieves and MiliTwat take any notice is up to them.
its a sham its not independent it is politically biased.
Sir Khan sounds like the name of the villain in the the Jungle Book.
Just sayin.
So here we see, laid out plainly before us, the battle between net zero and prosperity. You can’t have both.
Animal Airport – The Pigs are squabbling already. Two wings bad, no wings good. No wings good, two wings better.
Weird from the Accounts Lady , is she not on board with closing everything down , maybe it’s just covering fire so they don’t look completely Mental !
I suspect external influences we watch and wait and see
Doesn’t this exemplify the disfunction of the Government. Firstly Sadiq Khan a Mayor, not an MP, not a member of Parliament, and NOT the Primeminister, but a man who believes that he is above all of these and is the supreme ruler of London. A man who has succesfully turned the Capital into an area very like the places that many migrants have come from, but clearly wish to remake over here, violent, crime ridden, dirty, human faeces smell in the air Tottenham court road when you step out of the tube is a real treat, and of course the tents littering the pavements and parks. This man who has created this gets to tell the elected UK Government what they can and cannot do and they pay obsequience. Then we come on to one of the key supports of the Labour Party ideology, Net zero and the Green wipe out of the human agenda, led by the Prophet Ed Milliband, his God given mission to take the country back to the literal dark ages through the removal of fossil fuels and carbon, and hopefully the removal of the majority of useless eater citizens, in order to achieve this The… Read more »
Not much point planning to build a new runway when UK Fires plans to close them all down in a few years.
I’ll just leave this here: The first plan for a third runway at Heathrow Airport was proposed in 1946.
In the picture they both look like their in a “who can look most like concorde” competition!
L.abour are in a complete tizz wazz. They don’t know whether to grow or contract. Sadique is mayor of London but wants to contract because of Net Zero. Milliband wants to contract but Reeves is desperate for growth. What a mess
What environmental concerns? Climate Change isn’t about the climate and never was. Khan is concerned about an airport but apparently not concerned about the environmental and infrastructure effect of one in twelve people in London being illegal Immigrants. —-This constant use of the phony climate change excuse for everything the Radical Left want to achieve is pathetic and people in the UK need to look to the USA to see how Trump is wiping the floor with these phony planet savers.