Heathrow 3rd Runway: Boris Johnson prefers Afghanistan to voting ‘No’

The House of Commons in the British Parliament voted 415 to 119 yesterday (25 June) in support of the project to build a 3rd runway at Heathrow.

The building of the runway, let alone its completion is still a long way away, and subject to legal challenges, but this is the next successful step on the road to its completion.

Boris Johnson, the former Mayor of London, and currently the British foreign secretary has been a vocal critic of the 3rd runway project, threatening to:

I will lie down with you in front of those bulldozers and stop the building, stop the construction of that third runway.

Well, he chose to risk life and limb by visiting Afghanistan rather than vote ‘no’.

The vote was overwhelming, but the project will still be subject to a legal challenge mounted by affected councils including Wandsworth, Richmond, Hillingdon and Hammersmith & Fulham.

This project has had a long a chequered history and is still years away from completion. The Financial Times has a great timeline on the project, starting in 1946, and ending in 2016 when the government gave the go-ahead for the Heathrow expansion.

The new runway is slated to open in 2026 – all going well. The Independent has a rather good background article which lists a number of FAQ’s and answers on the project, for those who want to dig deeper into the background and details.