Tory Nimbys are walking into Starmer’s trap

The government has yet to formally announce its widely trailed decision to expand Gatwick, Heathrow, and Luton airports. But that hasn’t stopped six MPs from writing to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander with a pre-emptive attack. The four Green MPs, perhaps, plus a couple of anti-capitalist hard left Labourites? Nope. Four Lib Dems and two Conservatives – one of whom is, astonishingly, Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Business Secretary.

Griffith tells Alexander that local residents’ “life is blighted every single day by the noise of take-offs and landings at Gatwick Airport.” You might think that goes with the territory when you choose to live near an airport, but heh ho. (Responding to the revelation of his letter, Griffith, whose constituency is near Gatwick, said he would be happy to see Heathrow expanded, just not Gatwick – as fine an example of NIMBYism as anyone could want.