Airports Capacity
Debate between Lord McLoughlin and Chris Leslie(8 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)
What a pathetic way to make decisions about infrastructure in our country! Is the Secretary of State not a little bit shamefaced over what is an excruciatingly painful example of political procrastination, although it is obviously in the national interest for him to get on with it at Heathrow? On a scale of one to 10, just how embarrassed is he?
Mr McLoughlin
Political procrastination? In 2001,
“Labour ministers are reported to be seriously considering building a third runway”.
In 2003,
“The transport secretary, Alistair Darling, publishes white paper”.
In 2007,
“The government publishes a public consultation document”
in favour of expanding Heathrow. 1n 2009,
“The government approves a third runway, taking the number of flights handled by the airport from 480,000 to more than 700,000”.
I will take no lectures on ducking big issues, because the ducking of big issues was done when the hon. Gentleman was a member of the last Labour Government.