Freeonlinetranslators News

Image copyright PA

Opposition MPs shouted "Where's Boris?" as a Tory MP who resigned from government over Heathrow expansion urged colleagues to join him in opposing a third runway.

Ex-trade minister Greg Hands said it was a "debate about being true to your word and to your election pledges".

Boris Johnson - who also opposes a third runway - has come under fire for travelling to Afghanistan and missing a vote to approve a new £14bn runway.

MPs are expected to back expansion.

• Parliament Live: MPs to debate runway plan
• Johnson Afghan talks focused on security
• Minister quits to oppose Heathrow plan

Conservative MPs have been ordered to back it, the SNP will abstain and Labour have been given a free vote, with up to 40 of them expected to back the government, meaning it will almost certainly become law.

Mr Johnson has said following Mr Hands' example and quitting the government to vote against Heathrow would "achieve absolutely nothing".

Mr Hands said he had not resigned "willingly" - and he had been led to believe Conservative MPs would be given a free vote.

"However, I always knew I would vote against this proposal. For me in particular I made an unequivocal pledge at the 2017 general election," he told MPs.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

To shouts of "where's Boris?" from some on the Labour benches, Mr Hands said: "It's also a debate about being true to your word and to your election pledges."

Mr Hands raised concerns over issues including flight paths and night flights and the impact on air quality, before telling the Commons: "I think this proposal is fundamentally flawed."

Labour's shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald earlier outlined his party's official opposition to Heathrow expansion, criticising Transport Secretary Chris Grayling for making "a complete shambles of a vital national project".

He said the government's case for expansion was "riddled with gaps and fundamentally flawed".

SNP MP Alan Brown said the government had failed to give sufficient assurances that its Heathrow expansion plan would benefit Scotland's economy and "connectivity".

A new runway, which was approved by ministers earlier this month, would increase Heathrow's annual capacity from 85.5 million passengers to 130 million.

Opening debate in the House of Commons, Mr Grayling said Heathrow was "full" and a new runway was needed to secure "a clear path to our future as a global nation in the post-Brexit world."

• Heathrow runway to 'change lives forever'
• How do you build a runway over a motorway?
• Grounded: UK airport expansion plans
• In pictures: Heathrow airport

The construction of a third runway at the UK's largest airport is likely to lead to hundreds of homes being demolished in the nearby villages of Longford, Harmondsworth and Sipson.

Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell made an impassioned plea to MPs to vote against Heathrow expansion - something that is not Labour's official policy.

Speaking from the backbenches, Mr McDonnell said MPs had to decide if they stood up for people and communities or to protect "the interests of a corporate cartel that's ripped us off for decades".

The shadow chancellor and MP for Hayes and Harlington, near Heathrow, said that if the third runway went ahead, 4,000 homes would go and 8-10,000 people would be forcibly removed from their community.

He appeared close to tears as he made the case against expansion, telling MPs it would need "the biggest forcible move of human beings since the Scottish Highland clearances".

Skip Twitter post by @mfa_afghanistan

ملاقات معین سیاسی و سرپرست وزارت امور خارجه با وزیر امور خارجه کشور شاهی بریتانیا https://t.co/CBJjZyITlk pic.twitter.com/EiRXvFkeTD

— MFA Afghanistan 🇦🇫 (@mfa_afghanistan) June 25, 2018

Report

End of Twitter post by @mfa_afghanistan

Last week, Downing Street said Mr Johnson, the ex-mayor of London, would be missing Monday's vote.

His exact whereabouts, previously a matter of confusion, were revealed on Monday when the Afghan ministry of foreign affairs posted a picture on Twitter of its deputy foreign minister Hekmat Karzai meeting Mr Johnson in Kabul.

His absence has been mocked by other anti-runway campaigners in his party, including the former education secretary Justine Greening.

When he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London in 2015, Mr Johnson pledged to lie in front of bulldozers to stop expansion.

Before leaving for Afghanistan earlier on Monday, he wrote to constituents saying the "very considerable difficulties" facing the third runway meant it would be "a very long time before we have to make good on that pledge".

Skip Twitter post by @JustineGreening

Great you’re back Greg! I wouldn’t want any long term MP campaigners against #Heathrow expansion to miss their chance to represent their community. #commitment #bulldozer https://t.co/FP5h4lqrAg

— Justine Greening (@JustineGreening) June 25, 2018

Report

End of Twitter post by @JustineGreening

But Mr Johnson, who has long promoted a scheme for a new airport in the Thames estuary, suggested it would be a futile gesture for him to resign over the issue.

"I have long been an opponent of a third runway at Heathrow and that is why I am not voting for it tonight," he wrote.

"It is clear from what is likely to be a large majority of MPs who are in favour of a third runway that my resignation would have achieved absolutely nothing."

The government has pledged the airport will be built at no cost to the taxpayer, will create 100,000 jobs and will benefit the entire country, through guaranteed internal flights to the rest of the UK.

Ministers also insist the project will have built-in environmental protections, with the ability to fine Heathrow or ground aircraft if promises on night flights and other contentious issues are broken.

An independent review in 2015 recommended a new runway at Heathrow as the best option to address the need for extra capacity in the south of England. The Department for Transport has previously said no expansion would mean London's five airports would be full by 2034.