Labour challenge Tories in Westminster on airport

Despite many Conservative surrogates now backing Boris Johnson and his policies Labour are leading the fight against the blue-rinsers in Westminster

Once again Labour is taking the fight to the dithering and incapable Tories:

From Hansard

Justine Greening: This Government understand that Britain is not just an island nation but a trading nation, so our ports must be world-class global gateways. That is why we are backing major container port developments such as Liverpool, Bathside Bay, Felixstowe South, London Gateway, Teesport and the port of Bristol. It is also why we want to see a successful and sustainable future for that other crucial global gateway, our aviation industry.

We should remember that our country and our capital are right up there with the very best when it comes to international connections. Only China and the USA have aviation networks more extensive than ours. We are directly connected to 356 international destinations, and no European country can match our connections to the world’s great commercial centres. There are more than 9,000 flights every year to New York, 3,000 to Hong Kong, 2,500 to Singapore—I could go on.

To each of those important destinations and many others, Britain is the world leader.Nevertheless, if we are to maintain that status, we have to take on the tough challenges facing the industry, whether it is improving the passenger experience or enhancing capacity and connectivity, while tackling the industry’s impact on climate change and the local environment. We are determined to look at those difficult issues. As the Budget makes clear, we will set out our thinking on aviation capacity and a sustainable aviation framework this summer. We are determined to ensure that we retain our aviation competitiveness and hub status in the decades to come.

An economy built on success requires investment in infrastructure that is built to last. That is why we need to invest in, reform and modernise our transport networks to make them the very best that they can be at not just national but local level.

This Budget helps to lay those foundations for Britain’s future economic success.We will not follow the Labour party’s advice to spend more, borrow more and put our economic credibility at risk. We will hold our course to cut Labour’s deficit, rebalance our economy and forge a path to sustainable growth.

We will make the investment decisions needed to ensure that our economy is well placed to compete in the decades ahead. Tackling today’s challenges and investing in tomorrow’s future—that is what this Budget is about and what this Government are about, and we will build a country that we can be proud of again.

John Woodcock: If transport on the ground is up in the air with the uncertainties created by the Government, transport in the air, aviation, remains at serious risk of being grounded—if Members follow me. On aviation capacity, the Government still do not know—and we still do not know after the Secretary of State’s speech—whether she is taking off or landing.Justine Greening: What?

John Woodcock:

Well, you know. [Laughter.] I am here all week.

The Chancellor told us on Wednesday that the country must confront the lack of airport capacity in the south-east. He is right, but his words would carry more weight had the Government not spent the past two years dithering and delaying on producing any sort of aviation strategy.

What did we actually get this week? We got not one but two further delays. First, the Chancellor announced that the strategy that the Department for Transport’s business plan told us to expect in March will now appear late this summer; and now the Secretary of State seems to have put back the date even further to this winter or next spring—more dithering, more delay, while competitor hubs in continental Europe get on with providing new capacity that could transform their economies.

The Government came to power with just one policy on aviation capacity—to abandon the Heathrow third runway. Since the election, the Government have come up with no practical thinking on alternatives.

Instead, they seem to have outsourced their aviation strategy down the river to a Mayor who is more interested in trying to grab attention than in finding a plan that will work. That is no way to treat a vital economic driver that is critical to the country’s future growth.As the Secretary of State is well aware, the plans for an airport in the Thames estuary are being met with a barrage of opposition from the area, including from her own party’s MPs and councillors.

She would be even clearer on that if, like my hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State, she had been to north Kent and talked to local people in the areas affected. The idea of building a new airport from scratch in the Thames estuary is a huge distraction from the real need for airport capacity here and now.

It is obvious why so many people, but apparently not the Secretary of State, see an estuary airport as a complete non-starter—there is the impact on local communities, the destruction of internationally important habitats, the safety threat from explosive-laden wrecks, a liquefied petroleum gas terminal and a huge offshore wind farm.