Commons debates Heathrow as MPs shout: where's Boris?– Politics live

The Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, asks Grayling for assurances on how the government will deal with the “noise sewage” problem caused by aircraft.

He also says he agrees with John McDonnell on the financing of the project. Echoing some of the concerns McDonnell had earlier raised, Cable tells MPs:

The position of Heathrow Ltd is ... this is an exceedingly dodgy company by any reckoning. Last year, its profits were just over £500m, it remitted in dividends over £700m, it is extracting rent in the form of monopoly rent from its existing holdings – particularly its monopoly control over car parks – it has got very little interest in development.

Its balance sheet position is terrible, it has run down its shareholder funds from about £500m to about £700m, it has doubled its debt.

This is a company with no interest in development, no competence in managing the kind of risky project that is now envisaged. And the only way in which the government is going to be able to cope with this is by underwriting the company.

McDonnell tells MPs the government will win the vote, but that he believes the project will be stopped by legal challenges and will become a totemic campaign for climate change groups.

He finished by referring to a constituent of his, who he says came to the UK during the second world war to fly for the RAF and has since died. The house in which his widow still lives, McDonnell says, is right where the proposed runway will be.

There are human costs to this decision that this house needs to recognise and contemplate before they vote tonight to worry and blight my community once again on a project that will never – pardon the pun – take off.

Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, in whose constituency Heathrow lies, is addressing the Commons from the backbenches. He is an ardent critic of the expansion plan.

He says that, under David Cameron, the Conservatives supported his position in a promise to his constituents that they did not make clear would be for one parliament only. He points out that the current prime minister, Theresa May, also formerly opposed the expansion plan.

McDonnell asks where the people whose homes will need to be knocked down to make way for the runway will go. He points out that the scheme will involve the loss of schools and community centres, as well as other important sites. The local authority, he says, is already struggling to house people and find places in its schools. Referring to the government’s compensation offer, he says:

There is no point offering them 125% compensation, you can’t compensate for the loss of your whole community.

McDonnell calls the plan the “biggest forcible movement of human beings since the Scottish Highland clearances”.

The prime minister, Theresa May, has been meeting the president of the European council, Donald Tusk, at Downing Street.

Tusk said the meeting would allow them to discuss the state of the Brexit negotiations before a gathering of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday. He joked that after England’s World Cup match win on Sunday, the PM was in a “much better mood” than he was.

It is not my intention to spoil your mood. Unfortunately we are dealing with something much more difficult than the game against Panama.

He said he was “moved” by the march against Brexit on Saturday.

I know nothing has changed. We have to continue our work on the best possible Brexit deal, but I must tell you that I was very, very moved.

May said “good progress” had been made on Brexit, but there was “more that we want to do and need to do” on future trade and security relations.

The prime minister told Tusk that the white paper setting out what the UK wants in its future relations with the EU would follow this week’s meeting of the European council. A Downing Street spokesman said:

The prime minister said it would be an opportunity to discuss a number of important issues, including migration and security and defence ahead of the Nato summit.

On the Brexit negotiations, the prime minister looked forward to discussing the continuing progress we have made on issues relating to the UK’s withdrawal and work to build towards a deep future partnership.

The prime minister said the UK will be setting out more detail on the UK’s vision for the future relationship in a white paper after the June council.

Returning to Greg Hands’ Commons speech, there were shouts of “Where’s Boris?” from MPs as Hands urged colleagues to join him in opposing the Heathrow expansion project.

The foreign secretary had promised to lie down in front of the bulldozers, rather than see a third runway built at the west London airport.

However, with the government having ordered Tory MPs to back the project, Johnson has avoided the vote altogether. Instead of going to the Commons, he is visiting Afghanistan.

In a letter to Tory constituents, Johnson said resigning from the government so he could defy the three-line whip – as Hands has done – would “achieve absolutely nothing”. You can read more on that in our lunchtime summary.

Labour has allowed its MPs a free vote this evening, though the party officially opposes the plan.

The SNP has been setting out its reasons for abstaining on the Heathrow expansion vote. The party is accusing the Westminster government of failing to “provide sufficient guarantees over any benefits they claimed it would bring to Scotland”. Its transport spokesperson, Alan Brown MP, has said:

Any Heathrow expansion plan must provide significant benefits to our economy and connectivity, yet Grayling failed to provide any real assurances – or meet with me to give any guarantees.

The UK government’s decision to delay a report on Heathrow emissions is also cause for concern.

While the SNP has long worked with Heathrow on their plans for expansion and we will continue to work with them on the benefits that could be delivered, the UK government has let Scotland down. The Tories can’t be trusted to keep their own promises, never mind the promises they make to others.

With Airbus and airlines set to depart Brexit Britain, a third runway could well find itself in a ghost airport – the UK government should be turning their attention to getting the best possible deal when the UK leaves the EU, which includes staying in the customs union and single market.

My colleague Adam Vaughan has written a more detailed article on the government’s decision on the tidal lagoon, which you can read here:

Mark Shorrock, the founder and chief executive of Tidal Lagoon Power, the firm behind the Swansea project, has accused the government of a “vote of no interest in Wales, no confidence in British manufacturing and no care for the planet”.

He pledged to work with the Welsh government to deliver a UK tidal lagoon industry centred in Wales and said: “Swansea Bay tidal lagoon remains key to our vision.” But he also warned greater emphasis would be put on projects elsewhere in the world, including in northern France.

Moving away from the Heathrow expansion debate for a time, the Lib Dem former energy minister, Ed Davey, has attacked the decision not to fund the £1.3bn Swansea Bay tidal lagoon as “wrong, wrong, wrong”.

Shortly before the Heathrow expansion debate, the business secretary, Greg Clark, told the Commons that the project in south Wales did not demonstrate value for money for consumers and the public purse. Addressing MPs, Davey said:

His statement is wrong, wrong, wrong. The evidence that the future price of future tidal lagoons will fall dramatically after the first lagoon at Swansea is overwhelming – that’s exactly what’s happened with other renewable technologies including offshore wind, as he has admitted.