Sebastian Payne

Zac Goldsmith: I’m ‘delighted’ Heathrow won’t be a Mayoral election issue

Many suspect that the latest delay on a third runway at Heathrow is actually the government bending to the will of Zac Goldsmith. On the Daily Politics today, the Conservative’s London mayoral candidate said he hadn’t been consulted on the latest delay — all the communications have been one-way from him to the government, apparently — but he still welcomed the decision:

‘It’s an important issue, but it’s not as important as housing, it’s not as important as policing or TFL investments or any of these other issues, so I am delighted that Heathrow is not going to be the dominant issue in the run up to the Mayoral election, of course I am’.

Goldsmith also argued this is not actually a delay because meeting the air pollution criteria is required by the Airports Commission:

‘The Prime Minister has reached the right decision, and I want to make one point in relation to this.

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