Cabinet minister: I’ll fight Heathrow over new runway

JUSTINE Greening, the Education Secretary, has refused to rule out resigning if Heathrow Airport is given the green light to expand.

Miss Greening’s Putney constituency, in south west London, is near the airport and she has vowed to oppose a third runway.

The Cabinet minister told BBC 5 live’s Emma Barnett that she would continue to fight against Heathrow being the designated site for expansion in the south east. She added: It’s a debate that I’m still aiming to win… It’s one of those issues that has people with very different views, but I’m certainly going to put my views across, and we’ll see where we end up on the decision.’

When asked by the BBC if her position in Cabinet would be ‘untenable’ if the decision went against her, the minister simply said the scenario was ‘hypothetical’. The MP is one of several high-profile Tories who are openly opposed to plans to build an extra runway, arguing it would mean extra noise pollution for her west London constituency.

In May, Miss Greening predicted that the then PM, David Cameron, would have to shelve plans to expand Heathrow and go for Gatwick instead. Theresa May has previously clashed with Heathrow over the impact of noise and air pollution on her Maidenhead constituents.

But the Prime Minister used her keynote address to emphasise that the country needed to get on with expanding airport capacity in the southeast of England.

Mrs May said: ‘We will shortly announce a decision on expanding Britain’s airport capacity’ but she did not give any hints about which option she would back.