THE issue of whether or not to expand Heathrow airport is a “national decision” and should fully involve the SNP at Westminster, Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative mayoral candidate, has insisted.
In July, Mark Field, the Tory MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, argued that the SNP should abstain on a Westminster vote on locating a new runway in the south east of England.
And Mr Goldsmith was quoted at the time as saying SNP MPs would be “crossing the line in terms of our democracy” if a deal were struck for cheaper flights for Scottish travellers in return for Nationalist votes.
But asked during a lunch for Westminster correspondents if he had concerns that SNP MPs – who, unlike other parties on the divisive issue, were likely to vote as a bloc – might determine whether Heathrow or Gatwick is expanded, the Tory MP for Richmond Park said that airport expansion was one for all MPs to decide, irrespective of the English Votes for English Laws rule.
“It’s not an English decision or a west London decision, it’s a national decision,” declared Mr Goldsmith.
“Heathrow, like Gatwick and Stansted, is a piece of national infrastructure and, therefore, when it comes to making a decision, of course, the SNP should be invited to the table and they should be asked to vote just as I will be, if I’m an MP at the time. So I don’t have any problems with that at all,” he added.
It is now believed David Cameron is set to punt the decision on airport expansion into the long grass with a final decision not due until after the May mayoral election. This would be seen as an attempt to defuse the issue and help Mr Goldsmith’s chances.
The MP, like several of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet colleagues, London mayor Boris Johnson and the Labour leadership, is deeply opposed to creating a third runway at Heathrow. Indeed, Mr Goldsmith has threatened to resign his seat and spark a by-election if the green light is given to expand Heathrow; such a decision, he insisted, would be an “enormous betrayal”.
The PM, who famously said “no ifs, no buts, no third runway” is facing one of the toughest decisions of his premiership given that the Davies report, which the UK Government commissioned, backed the Heathrow option.
Mr Goldsmith told the Westminster lunch that the plan to expand Heathrow was based on "fraudulent" pollution data.
He insisted only a delay based on environmental concerns would be "legitimate" and not appear to be "political game-playing".
Last week, the Commons transport committee said expansion should not be granted until the airport demonstrated it could meet key environmental conditions on climate change, air quality and noise.
Senior ministers will meet tomorrow to plan their next move.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here