SNP support for Heathrow to be reviewed
Brexit and independence are not the only big issues facing the Scottish Government
New climate change targets have forced the Scottish Government to review its support for a third runway at Heathrow Airport, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The First Minister said support for the London hub’s upgrade would be looked at through a “new lens” following the agreement to scrap a proposed cut to air departure tax.
Scottish Governments upport for a third runway at Heathrow Airport has been thrown into doubt after Nicola Sturgeon said it would be reviewed in the light of new climate change targets.
A day after the Scottish Government agreed to scrap its proposed cut to air departure tax (ADT) as a result of the same targets, the First Minister told Holyrood her government’s controversial support for another runway at Heathrow would now be looked at through a “new lens”.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie raised the issue at First Minister’s Questions yesterday after the government’s decision to “abandon” its plan to cut and then ultimately abolish the air tax.
The SNP has previously backed the expansion of London’s biggest airport. The Scottish Government signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK government in 2016 based on the creation of 16,000 Scottish jobs and the potential for Glasgow Prestwick airport to become a logistics hub for the construction of the runway. However, SNP MPS abstained on voting for the third runway in June last year, citing climate concerns.
Mr Rennie asked :“Is the First Minister seriously telling us that she’s only recently discovered that hundreds of extra flights are bad for climate change? Will the government now ditch its support for the third runway at Heathrow?”
Ms Sturgeon said last week’s climate change committee report on the need to increase target son tackling and reducing emissions had forced change. She said: “We, unlike any other government so far in the UK, have accepted those recommendations, so we have to look across the range of our policies and do that inline with the increase in the scale of our ambitions.”
She said while she had made a case for the ADT cut in the past, “it no longer aligns with our ambition to reach zero net emissions by 2045”. “We will be required to look at all our policies, across all areas of Scottish Government responsibility through that new lens – that’s the commitment we’re making,” she said.
But Mr Rennie responded: “I think everyone will have noticed that the First Minister deliberately dodged my question, which was about Heathrow. The time for dithering is over. A third runway with hundreds of extra flights will not help climate change.”
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said the government’s position change was “an irresponsible U-turn, which could jeopardise the creation of thousands of jobs”.
He said: “The SNP needs to remember why it backed this project in the first place, but because of Nicola Sturgeon’s game -playing with the environment, the economy in Scotland could lose out badly.”
Ms Sturgeon was also asked about the cancellation of direct flights to China, as revealed in yesterday’ s Scotsman. Scottish Conservative Jamie Green raised the issue of Hainan Airlines, which has stopped taking bookings for its Edinburgh to Beijing flights from September.
The decision was linked to the government’s U-turn on ADT by Edinburgh Airport.
Ms Sturgeon admitted she was“disappointed ”, but believed that bookings would reopen for the summer season.
The focus of yesterday’s row about the Scottish Government’s stance on climate change was understandably on its current policy to support a third runway at Heathrow.
That’s the natural instinct when any leading politician doesn’t quite answer the question.
At Holyrood, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie had asked Nicola Sturgeon whether she would now ditch her government’s support for the runway and the First Minister responded that, following acceptance of expert advice that Scotland can reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045, “we will be required to look at all our policies, across all areas of Scottish Government responsibility through that new lens – that’s the commitment we’re making”.
She may be secretly hoping that the SNP will not have to get involved in the Heathrow wrangle again – the Westminster parliament has already voted in favour of the expansion and the High Court recently rejected a legal challenge from environmentalists, the Mayor of London and others. So, Sturgeon and co may well be able to avoid performing a U-turn – never a popular political manoeuvre – on this particular issue. Or at least there may be no
need for one so soon after the scrapping of the long-mooted plan to cut air passenger duty. However, Sturgeon’s answer suggests there could be many U-turns to come and it is unlikely to be long before there are calls for more. First in climate campaigners’ firing line could be Prestwick Airport, currently propped up by a multi-million-pound subsidy from the public purse. There is an economic case to be made to expand Heathrow and that should be weighed against the environmental effects. In Prestwick’s case, there are both economic and environmental cases to be made to close it.
And even if it can be turned around financially, that would presumably only be possible if the number of flights – and therefore the level of emissions – was increased. Airports have a strategic importance beyond their balance sheet and closing Prestwick would be a huge, historic decision to make. But, given the “climate emergency” facing the world and the transition to a radically different kind of economy, our elected leaders have no choice but to make such big decisions. If they make the right ones, we will all benefit. Get it wrong and we could find ourselves in serious trouble.