MPs vote for third runway at Heathrow as SNP MPs abstain

Heathrow Airport - Image credit: Heathrow

MPs voted 415 to 119 in favour of expanding Heathrow airport, with the SNP abstaining from the vote.

The SNP were criticised for confirming just hours before the vote that they would be abstaining, despite the Scottish Government previously saying it backed the project.

Transport spokesman Alan Brown said: "Chris Grayling has completely failed to make the case for Scotland – SNP MPs could not vote for a third runway at Heathrow with no guarantees of the benefits. 

"The SNP wants the best deal for Scotland.

“Any Heathrow expansion plan must provide significant benefits to our economy and connectivity, yet Grayling failed to provide any real assurances – or meet with me to give any guarantees."

But Scottish Conservative MP Luke Graham said: "Heathrow expansion will bring huge benefits to Scotland yet the SNP have ignored that in order to pursue their agenda of disruption at Westminster. 

"The idea they no longer support a third runway because Heathrow is about to become a 'ghost airport' is laughable, even by the SNP's standards.

"They have put their nationalist interests before the national interest - and they should be ashamed."

Labour MPs were given a free vote on the issue, despite the party announcing that the project had failed to pass the four tests they had set in areas such as noise pollution, climate change and regional connectivity.

Around 116 Labour MPs voted for the project, and around 95 voted against.

Some Labour backbenchers shouted "Where's Boris" after the Foreign Secretary – a long-standing opponent of a third runway who once threatened to "lie down in front of the bulldozers" to stop it happening – avoided the vote, despite Tory MPs being ordered to back the £14bn project.

Johnson was carrying out an engagement in Afghanistan, but critics said he had arranged the trip specifically to avoid the Heathrow vote.

In a thinly-veiled swipe at his fellow Conservative, Greg Hands MP – who resigned as a trade minister in order to vote against the new runway – said: "This is not just for me a debate about Heathrow, it's a debate about being true to your word and your election pledges."

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling had earlier urged MPs to back the scheme, which he said would "set a clear path to the future of our future as a global nation in the post-Brexit world".

He also hailed the "world-leading package of compensation", which will see those who lose their homes as a result of the new runway receiving 125 per cent of the value of their property as compensation.

But Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, the MP for Hayes and Harlington and a long-standing opponent of Heathrow expansion, said that was cold comfort for those affected.

"There is no point offering them 125 per cent compensation, you can’t compensate for the loss of your whole community," he said.