London Mayor Johnson comes out fighting against Heathrow proposal

LONDON (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson dismissed a proposal on Wednesday to expand Heathrow Airport as undeliverable and piled pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to reject the plan, setting the scene for a protracted political dispute. The government-appointed Airports Commission earlier recommended a third runway be built at Heathrow to add urgently required capacity, proposing a package of measures to mitigate the noise and environmental impact. It is now up to the government to decide whether to accept the recommendation but the ruling Conservative Party is divided on the issue. Cameron is in a difficult spot after pledging to voters before the 2010 election that first brought him to power that he would not allow a third runway, "no ifs, no buts". Johnson, widely seen as a potential successor to Cameron as Conservative leader and prime minister, has long opposed Heathrow expansion and proposes an alternative plan to build an entirely new airport in the Thames Estuary east of the capital. "It's very difficult for people who have campaigned passionately, as everyone in the Conservative Party did, at least in 2010, against a third runway, no ifs no buts, then to execute a u-turn," he told BBC radio. "It's completely right that the prime minister should be looking for a solution. As it happens I think that this is the wrong one and I don't think it's deliverable," he said, shortly after the commission's proposal was announced. He said it was obvious that despite the proposed mitigating measures, a third runway would increase noise and air pollution to unacceptable levels and predicted that expansion would not happen due to insurmountable legal and political challenges. Johnson also dismissed as "fatuous" and "risible" a proposal that expansion should come with a new law banning the future construction of a fourth runway, saying that if expansion went ahead a fourth runway would inevitably follow. "The whole solution lies in the Thames Estuary," he said. "Having circled around and around and around this debate for years and years, we will eventually come in to land at the Estuary." Another high-profile Conservative lawmaker who opposes Heathrow expansion, Zac Goldsmith, reiterated his pledge to resign from his parliamentary seat located in west London under the airport's flight-path if the party backed a third runway. "I don't believe the government is going to give the green light to Heathrow expansion," he told Sky News television, dismissing the Airports Commission report as "a colossal waste" of time and money. "It's not politically deliverable. And particularly this government - there are at least five members of the cabinet who are implacably opposed to Heathrow expansion," Goldsmith said. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, additional reporting by Will James, editing by Stephen Addison)