As the government-commissioned Davies report into aviaition capacity is officially launched, Boris Johnson has just used an appearance on the Today programme to deepen his struggle against a third runway at Heathrow. To supporters of the proposal, which Howard Davies’s commission will consider, the Mayor of London declared: “you’re completely wrong, you will be defeated.”
Observing that almost every politician in London was elected on a mandate to rule out a third runway, he said it would be “politically toxic … it will go down incredibly badly in London, it will lead to a significant erosion of the quality of life for the people in London.” The problem with a third runway, he argued, is that a fourth would be soon be needed – and where would that go? He went on: “The runway at Heathrow simply will not happen … There is absolutely no need for us to delay to 2015. Can I tell you, in the next nine years, how many runways they’re going to build in China? They’re going to build 52. How many in the UK? None at all. It is a policy of utter inertia.”
The aim of the Davies report, as with most government inquiries, is to achieve a political consensus. But with Boris unequivocally opposed to a third runway (the preferred option of several senior ministers, including George Osborne) Labour sceptical (Ed Miliband almost resigned from the Brown government over the policy), and the Lib Dems opposed to any new runways at London’s airports as well as “Boris island”, there seems little prospect of that. Rarely has an inquiry been so undermined before it has even begun.
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