Voting Tory ‘sends relaxed message over third Heathrow runway’

Heathrow warning: Tim Farron said the Tories could be given a free pass to build a third runway
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Kate Proctor2 May 2017
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Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron today called on Londoners not to give the Tories a free pass to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Mr Farron claimed that a vote for the Conservatives in the general election would send a “relaxed message” about the most significant construction project in the capital since the Second World War. “If the Conservatives win in south-west London that would be taken as a message from local people they were happy and content with where we were with Heathrow,” he said.

The Government announced in October that Heathrow had been chosen as the location for a new runway. The decision is still to go before Parliament.

Reaffirming his party’s position as anti-Heathrow expansion, Mr Farron said his MPs would block every vote on the issue in the Commons.

Pressed on how he would solve the shortage of runway capacity for the anticipated rise in air passengers, he said “it’s about providing alternatives”.He added: “There is value in additional capacity in this country — that capacity could easily be delivered elsewhere in places like the Midlands.”

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