Ed Miliband has said the expansion of Heathrow and other airports “won’t go ahead” if they don’t meet the UK’s emissions targets – putting him on a potential collision course with Rachel Reeves.
The chancellor has not commented directly on whether she would support a third runway at Heathrow, but she has indicated she would be prepared to overrule environmental objections to allow the project to go ahead.
Ms Reeves has been emphasising that growth is the UK’s number one priority and is expected to use a speech on Wednesday to support the expansion, as well as similar plans for Gatwick and Luton.
But appearing in front of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, Mr Miliband – the cabinet minister responsible for pushing forward the government’s net zero agenda – struck a different tone to the chancellor.
He told MPs that any aviation expansion must take place within the UK’s carbon budgets, including the 2050 target to reduce emissions by 100% compared with 1990 levels.
Independent advisers on the government’s Climate Change Committee (CC) have called for no net airport expansion without a proper national plan to curb emissions from the aviation sector and manage passenger capacity.
The CCC is publishing its next carbon budget – the legal limit for UK net emissions of greenhouse gases from 2038 to 2042 – on 26 February.
The energy secretary did not say whether a potential third runway could be approved before that.
Mr Miliband, who has been a vocal opponent of Heathrow expansion in the past, told MPs: “I just want to sort of provide this element of reassurance to you, which is 100% any aviation expansion must be justified within carbon budgets, and if it can’t be justified, it won’t go ahead.”
His comments put him at odds with Ms Reeves, who told Sky News at the World Economic Forum in Davos, that she would back infrastructure projects even where they are unpopular.
Asked directly if she would now put the runway, along with expansion at
