Rachel Reeves is “looking backwards” with her plan to expand Heathrow Airport, according to a Labour MP.
Speaking on GB News, Barry Gardiner laid bare his opposition to the Chancellor’s ploy to add a third runway to the UK’s busiest airport.
The Government says the move could create 100,000 jobs, but critics feel it flies in the face of its climate change commitments.
“There’s much in the package which Rachel [Reeves] set out that I think was exemplary”, he said.
Barry Gardiner criticised Rachel Reeves’s Heathrow plans
GB NEWS / PA
“If you look at the East West Rail link, that should have been the first thing that was done instead of HS2 starting at London.
“They should have done that rail link across the country in the north and then move across the south, so it’s great we’re doing that. It’s marvellous we’re talking about a European Silicon Valley between Oxford and Cambridge, these are really good ideas for growth.
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Rachel Reeves says she is keen to get ‘spades in the ground’ at Heathrow
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“If you look at the way in which the economy has gone, 0.1 per cent of the economy was in relation to the old fossil fuel economy last year. Nine per cent growth was from the new economy in renewables and the new technologies.
“I think Rachel is looking backwards when she looks at Heathrow. That was a project of the past, not the future.
“Business is increasingly done digitally.”
GB News’s Camilla Tominey put it to Gardiner that he was being a “luddite” about the policy, suggesting he is concerned about what his constituents think, a claim Gardiner vehemently denied.
Barry Gardiner joined Camilla Tominey on GB News
GB NEWS
“Not at all”, he said.
“I’m always concerned about my constituents but it’s not my constituents who would have two bulldozed villages in their constituency. It’s also the moving of the M25.
“You talk about 10,000 jobs and skilled workers coming there and doing that, but it means they won’t be doing that growth in the rest of the country where it’s so badly needed.
“You talk about how many runways Frankfurt has, our biggest competitor in terms of hub airports and international airports is actually Dubai. Dubai just has two runways. It has just exceeded Heathrow as the number one international passenger airport in the world. It only has two runways.
“The growth we need has to be spread around the country and has to be compliant with our targets for emissions in terms of climate change. Heathrow cannot do that.”
Rachel Reeves told GB News this week she is keen to put plans in motion for a third Heathrow runway.
She said: “If you look at the forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility [OBR], the independent forecaster, they forecast that during the course of this Parliament, employment will rise and unemployment will fall.
“The announcement yesterday about the third runway at Heathrow could create 100,000 jobs. The investment zone that I announced yesterday in Wrexham and Flintshire with JCB and Airbus could create six thousand jobs.
“The investment by Prologis at East Midlands Airport could create two thousand jobs.
“So there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the ability of our economy to grow and create jobs, because this Government is serious about getting things built once again in Britain, not just talking about it, but delivering.
“For Heathrow, we want spades in the ground in this Parliament. We’ve asked the Heathrow to come forward with plans by the summer.”