Theresa May's government faces another political headache after Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith resigned his seat in protest against the decision to expand Heathrow airport.
Mr Goldsmith, who was the Conservative candidate for London mayor this year, will contest the Richmond Park seat as an Independent. He said the decision to build a third runway at Heathrow was a catastrophic one which would become a millstone around the government’s neck.
“The government has chosen a course that is not only wrong; it’s doomed,” he told the House of Commons.
“It is wrong because of the million people who will directly suffer on the back of the environmental harm this project unavoidably produces, and doomed because the complexities, the cost, the legal complications mean that this project is almost certainly not going to be delivered.”
Indecision
The decision to build a third runway at Heathrow follows almost two decades of indecision by successive governments over airport expansion. MPs representing constituencies which will be affected by the expansion include foreign secretary Boris Johnson and education secretary Justine Greening.
Both ministers criticised the decision on Tuesday, taking advantage of Ms May’s decision to allow cabinet ministers to express dissent, as long as they do not campaign against it or criticise it in parliament.
Mr Johnson said the new runway would create a “hell” of aircraft noise above London but predicted that the project would never get off the ground.
“I think the day when the bulldozers actually appear is a long way off, if indeed they ever materialise to build that third runway,” he said.
“My view is the whole proceeding will be snarled up in legal objections of one kind or another and I just really repeat my point: do we want the greatest city on earth, parts of it, to be transformed into a hell of airport noise? I don’t think we do. I think there are far better solutions. As long as I am able to, I am respectfully going to make that point.”
Lengthy consultation
Expanding Heathrow has the support of most Conservative and Labour MPs and of the Scottish National Party, as well as business groups. The proposal, which the government claims will boost economic growth, will be subject to a lengthy public consultation, with a vote in Parliament in 2017 or 2018. The project, which includes a sixth terminal as well as a third runway, is expected to cost £17.6 billion and could be completed by 2025.
The expansion, which will require the demolition of the entire nearby village of Harmondsworth, will increase the number of flights over London by almost 50 per cent.
Opposition has focused on the environmental impact, especially on air quality, the noise and inconvenience to local residents, and the cost of the project, which campaigners warn will be borne by taxpayers and air travellers.
The government will seek to assuage doubts about expanding Heathrow by proposing a 6.5 hour ban on night flights, and legally binding noise targets with tougher restrictions on night noise. There will be a £2.6 billion compensation fund for local residents and the government claims that up to 77,000 new jobs could be created locally over the next 14 years because of the expansion.
The son of controversial businessman and Eurosceptic James Goldsmith, Mr Goldsmith was an environmentalist campaigner before he entered politics. He promised before seeking election that he would resign his seat, which he held last year with a majority of more than 23,000, if Heathrow expansion was approved.
Although the Conservatives are not expected to contest the by-election, the Liberal Democrats, who held the seat before Mr Goldsmith, hope that the MP’s support for Brexit could make him vulnerable.
