John McDonnell has said the Heathrow airport expansion could be scrapped under Labour’s plans to tackle the climate crisis.
The shadow chancellor said the controversial plans for a third runway may be blocked if the party wins the general election as part of its efforts to make the nation carbon-neutral by 2030.
On Sunday, he told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “We set ourselves criteria, one of which was environmental impact, the other was also economic impact and social impact.
“On the current criteria, we’ve said very clearly, Heathrow expansion doesn’t qualify.”
Pressed if Labour would cancel the extension, he said: “At the moment it does not qualify based on the criteria we set out.”
Other expansions across the country including in Manchester would also be considered under the criteria, he said.
Parliament gave the go-ahead last year for the expansion of the London airport, which published its “masterplan” in June to build a third runway by 2026.
Mr McDonnell also sought to reassure the Jewish community that Labour was trying to eradicate anti-Semitism after being shown three Jewish newspapers with highly-critical headlines.
“I’m so saddened by this. I just want to reassure them that we’re doing everything we can,” he said.
“Everything I said we would do we are doing in terms of the Labour party in terms of eradicating anti-Semitism from the party.”
Mr McDonnell also expressed optimism over Labour’s chances in the December 12 election despite polls putting them far behind the Tories.
Asked if it feels like a winning campaign, he said: “It does actually. I think the polls are coming our way.
“I think they are beginning to move in our direction. We know how far we are behind in the polls, not as far as in 2017.”
