CALLS for the UK Government to consider a third runway for Britain s only hub airport at Heathrow and avoid a capacity crunch have been joined by Alistair Darling, the former Labour Chancellor and Transport Secretary.
As pressure grows on David Cameron from Conservatives within his own Government to change tack and approve the expansion, Mr Darling insisted the decision to enhance the UK capital s aircraft capacity at Heathrow could not be put off as business risked being lost to the continent.
He referred to how, in 2003, the then Labour Government made the case for expanding the airport and said it was important to both travellers in London but also to those across the UK, saying: Many people rely on it to go to different parts of the world to do business, for pleasure or whatever.
The former minister rejected a new airport in the Thames dubbed Boris Island as it is being backed by the London Mayor on grounds of cost (estimated at £70 billion, which could put up landing charges and force airlines to move to Paris or Amsterdam) and also the impact upon the environment and birldlife.
Mr Darling said: We were warned that even if you did everything possible, including things that were pretty unpleasant, the risk of having large aircraft flying through flocks of birds would be too great.
The Edinburgh South MP said expanding Stansted and creating two half hubs would not work, and that the building of a second runway at Gatwick was banned until 2019.
He added: The front benches of all three parties are against the idea but they should look at it again and perhaps get a cross-party consensus. I don t think you can keep putting it off.
Nick Clegg and his LibDems are opposed to expansion on environmental grounds and will reaffirm their opposition at next month s conference.
Yet, of late, more Tory voices have been urging Mr Cameron to accept the need for a third runway. Tory backbencher Tim Yeo, chairman of the Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee, is the latest to support calls to expand Heathrow, saying the issue was a race in which Britain is now falling behind .
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