Conservative MPs urge leadership candidates to act swiftly on Airports Commission’s recommendation for an expanded Heathrow.
Expanding Gatwick would be a betrayal of the Conservative vision for Britain and undermine the ideals of the Conservative Party which puts the national interest first.
Eight Tory MPs representing the Gatwick Coordination Group have written to the two remaining Conservative Party leadership candidates warning that failure to commit to a third runway at Heathrow would jeopardise the national interest. Heathrow was the unequivocal recommendation of Sir Howard Davies’s Airports Commission last July.
Urging swift action, the MPs argue that expanding Gatwick would undermine the hard-earned reputation for competent governance in the national interest which gave the party a majority in the general election victory last year.
Writing on behalf of the Gatwick Coordination Group of MPs whose constituencies surround Gatwick, Crispin Blunt MP urged Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May to commit to a third runway at Heathrow after the airport accepted tough environmental conditions for expansion set out by the Airports Commission.
Crispin Blunt said:
“A commitment to implementing the Heathrow recommendation will show that the next Prime Minister is ready to get on with delivering this important infrastructure project – so important for strengthening the UK’s trading links with markets around the world.
“The country and Conservative Party members expect now more than ever for the next administration to deliver on the Party’s manifesto commitments - boosting manufacturers and exporters, taking tough decisions in the national interest and securing Britain’s long-term economic future. Gatwick can’t do this by adding some more short-haul flights to vacation destinations in Europe.”
The letter and signatories reads as follows:
Dear Theresa,
Dear Andrea,
We are writing to urge you to confirm that, if successful in your bid to become Leader of the Conservative Party, you will implement the Airports Commission’s recommendation for a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
It is vital that the Conservative Government gets on with implementing its programme for securing the UK’s economic future. A decision now on Heathrow will signal that the Government is prepared to take the big decisions to invest in the UK’s infrastructure and safeguard the UK’s position as an international aviation hub. No further delay can be justified; the stalling on major infrastructure decisions, including Heathrow expansion, is bridling our economic potential in the time that it most needs to be unleashed.
The Heathrow option, endorsed unanimously and unambiguously by the independent Airports Commission a year ago, is consistent with realising the ambitions for our country and economy that the Conservative majority-government was elected to do.
It is clear that it would be a betrayal of the vision we put to the country if we were to make a decision to expand Gatwick Airport, and further still, an undermining of the very ideals that bind us together and define us as the Conservative Party.
- Now more than ever, we need to show that Britain is open for business and to strengthen our trading links with markets around the world. Heathrow is best placed to support this, whereas the Airports Commission considered Gatwick is able “to cater for growth in intra-European leisure flying, but is unlikely to provide as much of the type of capacity which is most urgently required: long-haul destinations in new markets”.
- We were elected to deliver a long term economic plan. The Airports Commission concluded that the value to the UK economy of choosing Heathrow over Gatwick could be as much as £97bn and 130,000 jobs, with the majority of these benefits accrued outside of London and the South East.
- We were elected to build world-class infrastructure. The Airports Commission was clear that expansion should take place at Heathrow and that expansion at Gatwick was a “distant third place”. The National Infrastructure Commission, which is based on the model of the Airports Commission, would be immediately undermined if its recommendation as to what was in the national interest was rejected in favour of what is within short term political interests of a handful of MPs.
- We were elected to boost manufacturers and exports, and strengthen our standing as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. Gatwick does not handle cargo in significant numbers (in fact its cargo tonnage per annum has reduced by 70% since 2000) and is not equipped to do so in the future. All of the major manufacturing and freight organisations back expansion at Heathrow, the UK’s largest port by value, which has committed to double its cargo capacity with expansion.
- We were elected to govern for the whole of the United Kingdom and to build a Northern Powerhouse. Gatwick does not currently fly to and has no hopes of flying to any city in the North of England – Heathrow currently flies to Newcastle, Leeds Bradford and Manchester Airport. Even if Gatwick had a connection to the North, it does not provide additional connectivity so that passengers can travel both to and through London; less than 1,000 transfer passengers used Gatwick in the last year – Heathrow has 25,000 transfer passengers a day. In terms of supply chain, Gatwick has not published any plans to stimulate or direct procurement spend outside of South East England, whereas Heathrow have a strategy to connect SMEs to their supply chain, with procurement events planned all across the UK.
- We were elected to take tough decisions to secure Britain’s economic future for the next generation. Gatwick expansion would deliver a second-class airport on the wrong side of London for the rest of the country and at the foot of an already over-congested railway – the Brighton Mainline, which has the worst performing rail services in the UK and no resilience for Gatwick passengers in the event of closure. Rail upgrades at Heathrow mean it will be connected by 5 lines, and 70% of the UK population will be within 3 hours of Heathrow on public transport – connecting every region to growth. Gatwick will not deliver the connectivity for Britain or our exporters and leave us stranded in the global race for jobs and growth.
With the recent acceptance of the Airports Commission recommendations by Heathrow’s owners, there is now no good reason why expansion there should be delayed any longer.
We ask that candidates consider what the wrong decision would mean for the Conservative Party’s hard won reputation for competence in delivering infrastructure fit for a global economy and for our reputation to govern in the national interest.
Yours Ever,
Crispin Blunt
*On behalf of the following members of the Gatwick Coordination Group:
Crispin Blunt MP - Member of Parliament for Reigate (Chairman);
Sir Paul Beresford MP - Member of Parliament for Mole Valley;
Nusrat Ghani MP - Member of Parliament for Wealden;
Rt Hon Nick Herbert MP - Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs;
Jeremy Quin MP - Member of Parliament for Horsham:
Tom Tugendhat MBE MP - Member of Parliament for Tonbridge and Malling;
Henry Smith MP - Member of Parliament for Crawley;
Rt Hon Sir Nicholas Soames MP - Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex