Andy Burnham can’t treat Heathrow expansion as a local planning issue
Has Andy Burnham’s commitment to devolution morphed into a convenient excuse not to lead? I ask, because he seems to have excused himself from the debate about a critical £50bn national infrastructure project: Heathrow’s third runway. The project has been debated since the 1980s but officially kicked off in 2003 when Labour’s Alistair Darling, then [...]
Andy Burnham's stance on Heathrow expansion reveals a disconnect between local and national interests. The £50bn project, debated since the 1980s and officially started in 2003, has faced numerous legal challenges and reviews. Despite Labour's recognition of the growth-boosting benefits, it fell to the short-lived government of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to grant the final approval.
However, Burnham has been evasive, claiming it's a matter for Londoners, despite Heathrow being a national, and even international, infrastructure hub. This ambivalence has amused Sadiq Khan, who joked that the PM "delivered the lines I wrote for him really well." As the Labour conference approaches, Burnham is expected to promise "less drift and more direction," yet his opposition to Heathrow expansion, if implemented, would undermine this vision.
Written by urgent.news from City AM's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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