Burnham refuses to say whether he backs third runway at Heathrow

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has refused to say whether he backs plans to build a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.

The Government under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer gave its support to the third runway project at Heathrow, the largest and busiest airport in the UK, as a means of growing the economy.

Former chancellor Rachel Reeves used a major speech to announce her backing, saying it would create 100,000 jobs.

But Mr Burnham was unwilling to confirm he was in favour of the project going ahead in an interview marking the start of Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

“Principally, it’s a matter for London and Londoners,” he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg when asked if he would back the move.

A runway at Heathrow Airport (Jonathan Brady/PA)

PA Archive

He diverted questions about his views, saying he would wait to hear the outcome of a consultation process on the matter.

“It’s not right for me to just jump straight in on the back of the consultation,” he said.

He later added: “I think it’s right that we hear what people have said through the consultation, and then consider the way forward from there.”

It comes as the 2035 deadline for the runway project has been pushed back by four years, with airport bosses understood to have told the Government sticking to the deadline set by Ms Reeves is not possible.

The airport aims to get planning permission by 2029, and from that point believes building the new runway within a decade to be a reasonable goal.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said earlier this week that an expanded Heathrow could be “the country’s front door” to tourists from China and India.

The climate impact of increased flights from the new runway could be offset “holistically” elsewhere in the economy, she told The Telegraph.

Economic growth minister Dan Tomlinson backed Heathrow expansion – but joked that it was because his child enjoyed plane-watching.

He told a fringe event at the party conference: “As growth minister, I think you might be all wondering what my view is on Heathrow and I want to tell you that as a London MP, a London MP who lives under the flight path, that I am very pro-Heathrow expansion.”

He added: “I want to tell you the reason, and it is because my two-year-old, the only way I can get him away from the television is to take him into the back garden and watch the planes flying overhead.”