Ed Miliband skipped Rachel Reeves’s speech announcing support for a third runway at Heathrow in an apparent snub to plans that he previously threated to resign over. The Telegraph has more.
The Energy Security Secretary, who threatened to resign over expansion of the airport in 2009, was not among the Cabinet Ministers present.
Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, the Business Secretary, Steve Reed, the Environment Secretary, and Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, were all in the audience.
A source close to Mr Miliband, asked to explain the absence, said he had “meetings” but did not give specifics.
Mr Miliband also skipped the Prime Minister’s Questions session after Ms Reeves’s speech which was dominated by debate about the growth announcements.
At least 14 Cabinet ministers attended the House of Commons in person as Sir Keir Starmer took questions. Mr Miliband was not among them.
The former Labour leader is not expected to resign over the third runway. “Don’t be ridiculous, no,” Mr Miliband responded to a reporter who posed the question last week.
Yet his absence suggests discomfort over the decision and comes as other prominent Labour figures publicly criticise the move.
Ms Reeves said in her growth speech on Wednesday that a third runway at Heathrow was “badly needed”, could create 100,000 jobs, and that she wanted “proposals to be brought forward by the summer”.
But Sir Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor and a former Labour transport minister, posted his disapproval on social media site X within minutes of the announcement.
Sir Sadiq said: “I remain opposed to a new runway at Heathrow airport because of the severe impact it will have on noise, air pollution and meeting our climate change targets.
“I will scrutinise carefully any new proposals that now come forward from Heathrow, including the impact it will have on people living in the area and the huge knock-on effects for our transport infrastructure.
“Despite the progress that’s been made in the aviation sector to make it more sustainable, I’m simply not convinced that you can have hundreds of thousands of additional flights at Heathrow every year without a hugely damaging impact on our environment.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The third runway at Heathrow will not be ready until 2050, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has said, warning that the project would face decades of delays due to planning, protests and technical challenges. Making it completely meaningless for the current Government’s growth agenda.
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