Full list: Labour MPs who opposed Heathrow expansion

There are just two days to go until Rachel Reeves’ big growth speech. The Chancellor is expected to turn her fire on Nimbys – Not In My Back Yard residents – and give Heathrow’s third runway the long-awaited green light. Naturally, a bigger airport is not something Reeves herself would support near her own constituency: in 2020 she opposed Leeds Bradford’s £150 million expansion on the grounds it would ‘significantly increase air and noise pollution’. Awkward.

Still, at least Reeves can claim to having always been a long-time supporter of increased capacity at Heathrow. That is something which cannot be said of many of her colleagues, dozens of whom voted against the third runway the last time it was put to a vote in 2018. Below is a round-up of more than 50 Labour MPs, including a dozen ministers, who previously signalled their opposition to Heathrow expansion. Will they be so vocal this time around too..?

1. Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington: ‘There can be no doubt that the airport expansion at Heathrow that is being talked about would be the death knell of efforts to improve levels of air pollution.’ (2015)
2. Rosena Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting: ‘Heathrow expansion will take too long, be costly and bring severe disruption and pollution’. (2016)
3. Ed Miliband, MP for Doncaster North: ‘We owe it to future generations not just to have good environmental principles but to act on them. That is why I will be voting against the third runway at Heathrow.’ (2018)
4. Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds South: ‘My view is that Heathrow expansion is incompatible with our environmental and climate change obligations and cannot be achieved without unacceptable impacts on local residents.’ (2018)
5. Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South: ‘The next Labour government is going to break with the tired dogma of growth for growth’s sake, consequences be damned. Economic sustainability will be at the heart of all we do… Heathrow expansion fails these tests at every hurdle. That’s why it must be opposed.’ (2018)
6. Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick: ‘It is obscene to think of increasing its capacity by 50 per cent, given its location.’ (2023)
7. Fleur Anderson, MP for Putney: ‘The noise is constant. It affects sleep, and physical and mental health. We cannot have it any more.’ (2023)
8. Marsha de Cordova, MP for Battersea: ‘My constituents and I believe that Heathrow should not be expanded.’ (2023)
9. Ruth Cadbury, MP for Brentford and Isleworth: ‘The noise, day in, day out; the air pollution; the congestion on our roads…’ (2023)
10. Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough: ‘Heathrow expansion is incompatible with our environmental and climate change obligations and cannot be achieved without unacceptable impacts on local residents.’ (2018)
11. Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East: ‘A third runway goes against four tests that have been set out by the Labour transport team.’ (2018)
12. Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton: ‘My opposition to the expansion of Heathrow is of long standing – it predates my election to this place and comes from 46 years of living under the flightpath.’ (2018)
13. Keir Starmer, MP for Holborn and St Pancras: ‘There is no more important challenge than the climate emergency. That is why I voted against Heathrow expansion’ (2018).
14. Valerie Vaz, MP for Walsall and Bloxwich: ‘Any expansion of a regional airport, alongside HS2, would bring much greater benefit to the people and economy of the West Midlands than an expanded Heathrow ever could’ (2018).
15. Lilian Greenwood, MP for Nottingham South: ‘Air quality is undoubtedly one of the key challenges that the Government face in bringing forward these proposals’. (2018)
16. Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood: ‘Under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition and the subsequent Tory government, we have seen… the disastrous decisions to expand fracking sites and build a third runway at Heathrow airport. None of these actions belong to a government committed to protecting our environment for the future’. (2019).
17. Darren Jones, MP for Bristol North West: ‘My colleague Mary Creagh MP summed my feelings up perfectly when she said that “the economic case is unquestionable, but the environmental case is unconscionable”’ (2018).
18. Mary Creagh, MP for Coventry East: ‘The economic case for Heathrow is unarguable, but the environmental case is unconscionable’ (2018).
19. Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East: ‘On 25 June I voted against the creation of a third runway at Heathrow Airport. I did this for two major reasons: the environment and the North-South divide’ (2018).
20. Debbie Abrahams, Oldham East and Saddleworth, voted against it in 2018
21. Dawn Butler, MP for Brent East, voted against it in 2018
22. Liam Byrne, MP for Hodge Hill , voted it against in 2018
23. Dan Carden, MP for Liverpool Walton, voted it against in 2018
24. Janet Daby, MP for Lewisham East, voted it against in 2018
25. Stephen Doughty, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, voted it against in 2018
26. Peter Dowd, MP for Bootle, voted it against in 2018
27. Clive Efford, MP for Eltham, voted it against in 2018
28. Chris Evans, MP for Caerphilly, voted it against in 2018
29. James Frith, MP for Bury North, voted it against in 2018
30. Barry Gardiner, MP for Brent North, voted it against in 2018
31. Preet Kaur Gill, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, voted it against in 2018
32. Nia Griffith, MP for Llanelli, voted it against in 2018
33. Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North East, voted it against in 2018
34. Emma Hardy, MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, voted it against in 2018
35. Imran Hussain, MP for Bradford East, voted it against in 2018
36. Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon West, voted it against in 2018
37. Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, voted it against in 2018
38. Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, voted it against in 2018
39. Grahame Morris, MP for Easington, voted it against in 2018
40. Lisa Nandy, MP for Wigan, voted it against in 2018
41. Kate Osamor, MP for Edmonton, voted it against in 2018
42. Matthew Pennycook, MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, voted it against in 2018
43. Steve Reed, MP for Croydon North, voted it against in 2018
44. Ellie Reeves, MP for Lewisham West and Penge, voted it against in 2018
45. Emma Reynolds, MP for Wycombe, voted it against in 2018
46. Marie Rimmer, MP for St Helens South and Whiston, voted it against in 2018
47. Matt Rodda, MP for Reading East, voted it against in 2018
48. Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds North West, voted it against in 2018
49. Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury, voted it against in 2018
50. Karl Turner, MP for Kingston upon Hull East, voted it against in 2018
51. Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, voted it against in 2018
52. Matt Western, MP for Warwick and Leamington, voted it against in 2018
53. Mohammad Yasin, MP for Bedford, voted it against in 2018
54. Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, voted it against in 2018