With a key vote on Heathrow’s third runway due later today, the bulldozers ominously loom whilst the Foreign Secretary is missing in action. The once anti-Heathrow Boris Johnson will helpfully miss today’s vote though the exact whereabouts of Johnson remain unknown – with the Prime Minister saying last Thursday that ‘[he] will be what I would describe as the living embodiment of global Britain’.
Alas not all of Johnson’s colleagues seem so impressed. Robert Halfon hypothesised on Daily Politics that he might be in India or China ‘to buy a cheaper bulldozer’ than the one he previously threatened to lie down in front of should Heathrow expansion occur. Meanwhile, Greg Hands continues to make life more difficult for Johnson. Hands fulfilled his own electoral pledge and resigned as a trade minister last week to vote against the government. He shared this thinly-veiled tweet at the weekend.
Great to arrive back in the UK at Luton Airport in time for the match today and to vote against #Heathrow expansion tomorrow. I wouldn’t want to be abroad for either of those. #commitments.
— Greg Hands (@GregHands) June 24, 2018
Asked today: does he think Johnson’s running away? ‘Well that’s a question for others…,’ Hands shadily replied. Mr S suspects Johnson will receive a muted response next time he is in the members’ tearoom.
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