Mayor lambasts Chancellor over Heathrow

Mayor of London Boris Johnson takes a helicopter ride over Hong Kong

The mayor of London called on the Government to follow the example of Hong Kong, overcome its doubts, and give the green light to a new airport – warning the Chancellor and Prime Minister David Cameron that they are “kidding themselves” if they think the UK can otherwise compete internationally.

As Mr Johnson toured Hong Kong’s island airport he said he was amazed to hear an unnamed Cabinet Minister – reportedly Foreign Secretary William Hague – poo-poo plans for a new airport because it is a “Chinese thing to do” and railed against “recidivist” attitudes in the Treasury and business lobbying organisation the CBI.

The Mayor used Chek Lap Kok airport, an engineering marvel built on land reclaimed from the sea – much like his own plans for a so-called “Boris island” – as an example of what could be achieved with a new airport east of London.

Looking out over its two runways, Mr Johnson claimed the situation in Hong Kong in the early 1990s when the old urban airport had no room for expansion was similar to the one currently facing the UK with a third Heathrow runway a controversial and, he claims, unworkable option.

The Mayor warned that there was a risk of a “convulsive heave” from the UK Establishment that would end with the “catastrophic” building of a third Heathrow runway but conceded that Mr Osborne’s attitude to large infrastructure projects like high-speed rail indicated he might be persuaded to build a new airport.

The Chancellor was due to arrive in Hong Kong yesterday shortly after Mr Johnson as the pair come to the end of their separate trade missions to China.

Later Mr Johnson said: “I think the trouble is that there are a large number of people in the Treasury and elsewhere who basically think ‘little old us, we can’t do something like that, we can’t compete with China in that way’ and I think that is negative, I think that doesn’t show sufficient ambition for this country.”

He added: “At the moment we in London are losing business to other European airports, our business people cannot get off to these mainland Chinese destinations.”