Transport select committee clash with Greening over Boris Island airport
15.12.11
Transport Secretary Justine Greening clashed with MPs on the transport select committee yesterday about the idea of a new airport for London. They also questioned the Government's support for the UK aviation industry.
Ms Greening was giving evidence to the committee on the transport plans outlined in last month's autumn statement. The hearing became heated when Louise Ellman, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, asked whether she was going to ‘explore the Boris Island idea’. In response, Ms Greening asked the cross-party committee whether they had read any of the witness statements provided by Mr Johnson as part of a ‘call for evidence’ on airport capacity in London. She said: ‘If anyone has, I would be interested if you could raise your hands.'
But Mrs Ellman said this was not the way the committee conducted its hearings, telling her: ‘No, no, no, we are asking you the questions.’ Ms Greening went on to suggest that if the MPs ‘had actually read that evidence’, they would know that the London Mayor had not explicitly called for a new airport to be located in the Thames Estuary, east of the capital, but rather for a new ‘hub airport’ in the south-east of England.
Mrs Ellman told the transport secretary that ‘it is not for you to suppose or assume or think anything’ but to answer the committee's questions about the issue raised. But the transport secretary said the MPs were trying to ‘pin her down’ on a subject that she preferred not to discuss as she did not want to ‘jump a process that is already under way’ She added: ‘I think it is also incumbent on the committee to, in a sense, have some kind of details behind questions’. Mrs Ellman responded: ‘Secretary of State. That is not in order. This meeting, we ask you the questions. You may have whatever thoughts you wish but your role is to answer questions.’
Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng, whose Spelthorne constituency includes Heathrow, said the transport secretary had failed to address the issue. e said: ‘You are head of a very important department. This is a major strategic issue and you simply flannelled and have not given any kind of direction or what your way of thinking is on this.’
The transport secretary rejected this comment and said ministers were ‘considering all the proposals that have been put to us’, adding ‘of course that includes proposals from people like the mayor’. Ms Greening said she was looking at ways of making better use of existing capacity and it would be wrong to draw conclusions on future plans ahead of the publication of the Government's draft strategy on aviation expected in the Spring.
To book heathrow airport hotels or heathrow airport parking at the lowest price, click on these links to two great heathrow airport car parking and heathrow airport hotel price comparison page.
