MPs on Monday voted 415 to 119 in support of expansion plans at Heathrow airport where a third runway is now expected to be built.
A total of 296 MPs backed the government’s expansion plans in a decisive victory for Theresa May.
Labor MPs were offered a “free vote” by Jeremy Corbyn and they overwhelmingly voted in support of the plans.
Eight Tories MPs including Greg Hands, Justine Greening and Theresa Villiers did not support the plans despite strict orders to support the government. Boris Johnson, one of the leading opponents of the expansion, did not vote as he was in Afghanistan.
Tory former transport secretary Justine Greening said the story of Heathrow was one of “broken promises, broken politics and broken economics”.
She said: “People simply get ignored in this process, you actually have to be either a big business or, I think, a big union before your voice counts, and that is totally unacceptable.” The Independent reported.
Environmentalists have also strongly condemned the expansion plans. Greenpeace UK said it is ready to join Four London Councils and London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s bid to fight the decision in court.
And Friends of the Earth said in a statement: “MPs who backed this climate-wrecking new runway will be harshly judged by history.
“The evidence on the accelerating climate crisis, which is already hitting the world's most vulnerable people, is overwhelming - and expanding Heathrow will only intensify the misery.” The BBC reported.
The Business group CBI supported the vote. They said the vote is a “a truly historic decision that will open the doors to a new era in the UK's global trading relationships”.
The expansion may lead to the demolition of houses in the nearby villages of Longford, Harmondsworth and Sipson. £2.6billion has been set aside for compensation of residents according to Mr. Chris Grayling the Transport Secretary.
Wrangling has delayed the decision for over 20 years, in what the Transport Secretary termed the “biggest transport decision in a generation”.
by Airport Pickups London
