Government cautiously optimistic on Heathrow vote, says Grayling

The government is “cautiously optimistic” about winning a key parliamentary vote on the expansion of Heathrow airport, the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has said, defending the controversial idea as being good for the whole of the UK.

The Conservatives, who have a three-line whip in place for their MPs, are likely to get significant Labour support in the vote on Monday after Unite called for Labour MPs to back the third runway.

Len McCluskey, the union’s leader, has written to all Labour MPs saying they have “the opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs” by backing the government’s decision.

Asked whether the vote would be passed, Grayling told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s never over until it’s over and the vote has actually happened, but there is strong support from across the political spectrum for this.

“It’s not usual for me to find myself campaigning on the same side as Len McCluskey of Unite, but he is right in arguing that this is a project that can make a real difference to Britain.”

The whereabouts of the outspoken third-runway opponent Boris Johnson was unknown on Monday morning, with Grayling saying he had no idea of the foreign secretary’s location. The west London constituency of Johnson, who once pledged to “lie down … in front of the bulldozers”, would be affected by the runway’s construction.

It was revealed on Monday afternoon that the former London mayor was in Afghanistan, meaning he can miss the vote without having to defy the government, which would place pressure on him to resign.

Fellow Tory MP Greg Hands resigned last week as a trade minister to oppose the scheme, and on Sunday tweeted what was seen as a thinly veiled challenge to Johnson.

Asked about Johnson’s whereabouts, Grayling said: “I’ve genuinely no idea where Boris is. But the prime minister has been very clear that there are people in the party who for various reasons had long-held views about the airport, and we’re not going to whip those people into voting.”

He added: “Boris’s views are long- and well-known on this, and what he decides to do on the vote is very much a matter for Boris himself.”

Grayling has been accused of avoiding talking about the extra greenhouse gas emissions an expanded airport would produce. This, he said, had been unfair: “We’ve talked about climate change right the way through, and the airports commission, which started this work for us, looked very carefully at the issue of climate change.”

Modern aircraft were “breaking new frontiers in terms of fuel efficiency”, he said, which would mitigate the issue. “The big difference that is being made in the aviation sector is technology. The new generation of aircraft are quieter, they are much more fuel-efficient.”

Asked about the economic case for the third runway, the transport secretary said the project “has to be brought in at a sensible cost”, with no big rise in landing charges.

“We need to make sure that for the passengers, and for indeed the freight users going through Heathrow, this doesn’t mean a big hike in costs.

“This is not simply a project for London and the south-east. The connections that we create through Heathrow benefit every part of the United Kingdom.”

Grayling added: “This is very clearly a private sector project. The taxpayer is not going to be paying for the expansion of Heathrow airport.”

Asked about the costs of improved transport links to Heathrow, he said: “Some of it Heathrow will pay for, some of it the private sector will pay for, some of it government will pay for. If you look at Crossrail, if you look at HS2, which are very much an important part of the package, these are things we’re doing already.”