Mayor Clashes with Greens Over Heathrow Expansion

Declines to sign letter expressing concerns over third runway

Sadiq Kah (left) and Zack Polanski (right)

October 12, 2024

Sadiq Khan has said he remains opposed to Heathrow expansion, while refusing to co-sign a letter to the Chancellor setting out his concerns about a third runway.

The London mayor was asked about airport expansion on Thursday by Zack Polanksi, the Green Party’s deputy leader and a member of the London Assembly.

During a Mayor’s Question Time (MQT) session, Mr Polanski said Mr Khan was failing to show “climate leadership” by refusing to join him in writing to Rachel Reeves to ensure the UK’s busiest airport does not grow in size.

The mayor in turn accused Mr Polanski’s party of “Green hypocrisy”, pointing to Green MP Adrian Ramsay’s opposition to a planned line of pylons – proposed to carry wind-generated electricity – through his constituency on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow have been “under review” since the pandemic, but the remarkable bounce-back in passenger numbers means it is almost certain to be adopted once again by Heathrow’s boss Thomas Woldbye.

Mr Khan said at Thursday’s MQT: “Aviation is a major polluter, and all decisions about expansion must be taken with the climate emergency in mind.

“As other sectors de-carbonise, aviation will constitute an ever-larger share of total UK emissions, even without expansion.

“Future growth in the sector cannot be justified on the grounds that de-carbonisation in other sectors will provide benefits that can be absorbed by aviation. Every industry must be looking to improve…

“The new Government has made clear that any expansion proposal would need to demonstrate that they’re consistent with their binding climate change targets, as well as noise and air pollution objectives. These are crucial factors in any decision about expansion, alongside the consideration of any economic growth they might bring.”

In direct comments about Heathrow, he told Mr Polanski: “I’m against Heathrow expansion. I think Heathrow should be better, not bigger.”

But the Green assembly member questioned whether the mayor will specifically ask the new Government to suspend its Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) with immediate effect.

The ANPS is described by the Government as the “policy framework for expansion at Heathrow Airport” and the “primary basis for decision making on any development consent application for a new north-west runway”.

Under the previous, Tory-run Government, Mr Khan sought to legally challenge the ANPS.

In response to Mr Polanski’s question, the mayor said he had not discussed the policy framework with the new Government, but he welcomed recent comments from the Chancellor regarding Heathrow expansion.

Ms Reeves told the Standard just prior to the general election that a Labour Government would need to “look at all the evidence including around the environment, but you know I back our airports… I back investing in infrastructure”.

Mr Khan said the Government “knows my views in relation to Heathrow”.

Mr Polanski pressed the mayor on whether he would remind the Chancellor in writing about his previous opposition to the ANPS, in the form of a co-signed letter.

“It’s really important that if we want to stop Heathrow expansion… the way to stop it is to make sure the ANPS is suspended with immediate effect,” said Mr Polanski.

“If you’re not willing to do that, it sounds like you’re saying you want Heathrow expansion to be stopped, but you’re not willing to take the action that would make that happen.”

Mr Khan replied: “Look, the deputy leader of the Green Party can write to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. He’s welcome to do so. He won’t be surprised to hear I won’t be co-signing a letter with the deputy leader of the Green Party.”

Mr Polanski said this proved that the Greens are showing “climate leadership, while the mayor is just talking”.

Mr Khan hit back by referring to the Green’s co-leader, Mr Ramsay, elected in July as MP for Waveney Valley.

“We saw the Green MP who’s for renewables, but when it goes through his back yard, he’s suddenly against renewables,” the mayor said. “Have you taken action against him? Have you disciplined him?”

Mr Ramsay has said that National Grid’s East Anglia GREEN project – a 114-mile line of pylons stretching from Norwich to the Thames Estuary – should be “paused” while “other options are considered”, such as carrying the route off-shore to mitigate against its impacts “on agricultural land, on traffic, on local communities, on the landscape”.

As the mayor began to shout “Green hypocrisy!”, Mr Polanski attacked the mayor’s own environmental record, pointing out that he and his team accepted free business class flights from United Airlines, worth many thousands of pounds, for a trade mission to and across the USA in 2022.

The deal was struck in exchange for various “promotional opportunities” to be enjoyed by the airline. However, aside from a failure to correctly declare the benefits of the agreement, the mayor was not found to have committed any wrongdoing by City Hall’s monitoring officer.

Noah Vickers - Local Democracy Reporter