Theresa May will personally chair a Cabinet committee to decide on Heathrow’s third runway plan, the Evening Standard has learned.
The Prime Minister will lead a thorough review of the evidence — and aims to announce the much-delayed decision within the Government’s current target of October. A new membership for the Economic Affairs (Airports) sub-Committee is to be announced shortly.
Justine Greening, the Education Secretary and Putney MP, who is widely regarded as the Cabinet’s most diehard opponent of Heathrow, is not likely to be a member, say Whitehall insiders.
The Prime Minister was returning to work full-time today after her Swiss walking holiday, with the critical issue of airport expansion high on her list of priorities.
Supporters of Mrs May insist she will act in the national interest, rather than be swayed by night flight noise protests in her Maidenhead constituency. But she was among five Cabinet ministers with seats close to flight paths who were kept off the decision-making committee under David Cameron.
Tory MP Crispin Blunt, who chairs the Gatwick Coordination Group which is pro-Heathrow expansion and against a second runway at Gatwick, said: “It’s her call to make. Although she has a constituency interest, she has got to put the country’s interests first.”
John Stewart, of anti-runway group Hacan, predicted that Mrs May would be more sympathetic to people suffering airport noise because of her local issues. He said: “This suggests she is going to have quite a fundamental look at the issues. I’m sure she will try to act for the national interest but there is no question that as an MP whose constituency is so close to Heathrow she will be affected by local opinion.”
It is widely believed at Westminster that Mr Cameron was about to announce the go-ahead for Heathrow expansion before his resignation derailed the process a year after the Airports Commission recommended the move, subject to noise and air quality tests.
Speculation that Mrs May might try to rush a decision in a “September window” after ministers return from holiday is being dismissed by Whitehall sources. Instead they are talking of a decision coming “by the end of the year”.
Members of the old committee who might carry on include Business Secretary Greg Clark and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid.
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