Thursday 15 January 2009

Heathrow - the fallout

Even before the Geoff Hoon confirmed the government's support for the third runway, the fallout began.

The Independent reports that environment secretary Hilary Benn was taunted this morning over his failure to stop the runway. Benn may however have persuaded Hoon to drop plans to increase flights in the meantime through "mixed mode" operation.

I just done a piece for newstatesman.com saying that Gordon Brown will meet Labour MPs this afternoon in a bid to head off a rebellion. Resignations from the goverment may also follow, although Andy Slaughter, a ministerial aide, has told me that the Standard went a bit too far in suggesting that he was considering resigning.

Speaking of going too far, Labour MP John McDonnell has just got himself thrown out of the Commons for grabbing the Speaker's mace in protest at the runway decision.

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