Reading West MP Martin Salter who is also Labour’s Vice Chair for the Environment, made it clear in a speech in the Commons today that he intended to defy a Government three-line whip in order to vote in favour of a motion opposing a third runway at Heathrow. Mr Salter has consistently opposed the third Heathrow runway and was the author of a Commons motion (EDM 339) in December which attracted the support of 132 MPs of all parties.

In his speech Mr Salter said that a third runway would “increase high levels of emissions in the area from both cars and aircraft and create more gridlock, more pollution, more nitrogen dioxide, and more asthma for young people across the Thames Valley.”

He said:-

“The Opposition motion is not a Tory motion, it is the exact wording of an earlier Labour Early Day Motion which I was proud to sign. There are some issues, and this is one, which are above party politics. You can’t look the parents of a young child with breathing problems in the eye and say ‘when I had the opportunity to do something about this I walked away from it. I didn’t walk into the lobby because my political opponents were in that lobby.’ For anyone who cares about climate change, this is an issue upon which this House needs to take a lead.”