David Cameron has set the stage for a cabinet showdown over the future of Heathrow after promising that he will decide on a third runway only after consulting feuding colleagues.
The prime minister is to refer the contentious issue to a full cabinet meeting in an attempt to calm fears that opponents are being frozen out.
It emerged yesterday that Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary and the most senior civil servant, advised ministers to avoid public comment on Heathrow, prompting dismay from some ministers who believed that their views were being silenced.
Sir Jeremy told ministers in an email that they could repeat previous positions but not make new statements after the publication of the airports commission’s report, which recommended the expansion of Heathrow.
Mr Cameron has promised to reach a decision by the end of the year and the political temperature is rising.
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He excluded ministers opposed to a third runway, such as Justine Greening, the development secretary, and Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, from the group chosen to examine the case for and against a third runway.
The group includes supporters of Heathrow expansion, including George Osborne, the chancellor, Sajid Javid, the business secretary, and Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary.
At the time it was claimed that they were chosen because they represented departments “with the largest policy interests”.
A source told The Times that Mr Cameron left out Mr Hammond and Ms Greening to prevent a legal challenge, because both have constituencies that could suffer from more noise and pollution.
The prime minister had also promised that the findings of the smaller cabinet group would be discussed in full cabinet before a final decision was taken, the source added.
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Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has said that expanding Heathrow would decrease the number of flights to Scotland, in an attempt to sway the Scottish National party’s 55 MPs against the project. The mayor of London said that the airport had been “failing our regions” for 25 years and a third runway would “only worsen the situation”.
In a letter to business chiefs and political leaders in regions across Britain, Mr Johnson, who has a seat in Mr Cameron’s political cabinet, has tried to increase nationwide support for a new, four-runway airport to the east of the capital, describing it as the only long-term solution.
“The truth is that Heathrow has been failing our regions for well over a quarter of a century and quite staggeringly the airports commission’s own analysis shows that the construction of a third runway only worsens the situation,” Mr Johnson said. “That is not how you rebalance the economy and spread prosperity across the UK.”
Mr Johnson’s letter follows remarks by Alex Salmond, Scotland’s former first minister, who suggested last week that the SNP would endorse a third runway at Heathrow only if the proposal increased the number of flights north of the border.
With several senior Conservative and Labour figures opposed to the expansion of Heathrow, the SNP’s 55 MPs could play a key role in the outcome of a close Commons vote.
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Top civil servant denies cover-up
The head of the civil service has spoken of his dismay over “unwelcome” press reports that cast mandarins in a bad light.
Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, who has been accused of gagging ministers over their concerns about expanding Heathrow, rejected claims that he was covering up material linked to the Iraq war. He told Civil Service World that public figures should accept that negative press was “part of the job”. He added: “The only thing I find disappointing is when personal criticism of me leads to some reflection on the civil service as a whole, because it’s a very big part of my job to make sure that the public . . . understand the great, interesting work that is going on in all parts of the civil service. So anything else that distracts from that is obviously unwelcome.”
Sir Jeremy sought to tackle criticism of the delay in the publication of the report into the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which has led some commentators to dub him “Sir Cover-Up”. Sir John Chilcot opened the inquiry in July 2009 and it is yet to report.
“You will see, when it is finally published, that there’ll be a lot of material that would never previously have been published,” Sir Jeremy said.
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“So it frustrates me a little bit, to be honest, . . . that I’m being accused of trying to get in the way, or covering things up, because that is just not the way in which I’ve approached it.”