Boris Johnson says resigning over Heathrow would have achieved 'absolutely nothing' - Politics live

Here is the Evening Standard story about Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, saying resigning over Heathrow expansion would achieve “absolutely nothing”. And here is an extract from the letter, quoted in the story, which Johnson has sent to councillors in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency explaining his decision.

In the letter Johnson said that he expects the government to win tonight’s vote easily. But he also suggested that, in the end, the third runway may never be built - implying that he is not confident that the government (of which he is a senior member) will actual deliver on its single most important transport infrastructure policy. He said:

I have long been an opponent of a third runway at Heathrow and that is why I am not voting for it tonight.

I have made clear my opposition since joining the government, and I will continue to lobby colleagues from within government. Some of my critics have suggested that I should resign over the issue. No doubt they have my best interests at heart.

But it is clear from what is likely to be a large majority of MPs who are in favour of a third runway that my resignation would have achieved absolutely nothing.

Hillingdon council have been emphatic that they would rather have me in the cabinet and fighting for their cause on this and other issues.

On election night I promised with John McDonnell, the Labour MP, to lie in front of the bulldozers. In view of the very considerable difficulties that still face the third runway — its cost and the appalling air and noise pollution entailed by the project — I believe it will be a very long time before we have to make good on that pledge; if indeed a 3rd runway ever comes about.

• Johnson suggests Heathrow third runway may never be built, even though he expects government to win tonight’s vote.

I’m just back from the Number 10 lobby briefing. It was one of those ones that conformed to the rule that the length of a briefing is in inverse proportion to its news value - lots of tough questions, met by bland and defensive answers. We did not even get to find out where Boris Johnson will be tonight, although, when pressed, the prime minister’s spokesman did say that Theresa May considered him to be an “honourable man”.

While we were there the Evening Standard published its first edition, with a story quoting Johnson as saying: “My resignation would have achieved absolutely nothing.”

Ashley Cowburn (@ashcowburn)

“My resignation would have achieved absolutely nothing,” says Boris on Heathrow. pic.twitter.com/IA7Kr4lxOS

June 25, 2018

Jacob Rees-Mogg had quite a few other interesting things to say in his LBC phone-in. He is only a backbencher, but he is chair of the European Research Group, which represents about 60 of the most Brexiter Tories. It is a powerful faction and if they were an independent party, they would be the third largest in the Commons, with Rees-Mogg getting two questions every PMQs.

Here is a summary.

• Rees-Mogg suggested Tory MPs might refuse to vote for tax rises to fund the NHS. Asked about the government’s plans to use tax increases to fund the extra £20bn announced by Theresa May, he said:

I’m against tax rises. I don’t think the Conservative party is here to increase taxes. Philip Hammond [the chancellor] seems to think otherwise. But he hasn’t yet presented a budget and he may find there’s not a lot of support for tax rises.

He did try before. He tried to increase national insurance and had to back down, which was a clear attack on the self-employed and a great mistake.

• Rees-Mogg claimed the government could raise more money for the NHS by cutting taxes.

I think you make money available for the NHS by growing the economy. I think you grow the economy by lower tax rates. I think you stifle the economy by higher tax rates.

He said he would like to bring corporation tax down from 17% to 15%.

• He said the Ministry of Defence had to prove that any extra funding it received would not be wasted. It probably did need more, he said. But he said it was not spending money efficiently.

I think defence probably does need some more money, though we need to be careful about that. We’ve just had another story these ships with engines that don’t work when it’s hot. And we’ve got an aircraft carrier that does not have any aircraft ... You begin to wonder whether the money that is being spent currently is being spent perfectly. The MoD needs to make a case that it has got its current budget under control, and then it’s got to set out what its requirements are.

Asked about reports that Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, had privately threatened to bring down May if he did not get more money for defence, Rees-Mogg said he was “surprised” by the reports and that this sounded like “a very unlikely thing for the defence secretary to have said”.

• Rees-Mogg insisted that the Brexit divident was real. He said:

The Brexit dividend is real. We have cut our expenditure, or will once we’ve left, by about £10bn a year net. And that will feed into the increased expenditure to the NHS.

When it was put to him that expert bodies like the Office for Budget Responsibility or the Institute for Fiscal Studies said any gain from not having to contribute to the EU budget would be wiped out by the reduced tax revenue caused by Brexit slowing growth, Rees-Mogg said an article in today’s Daily Mail showed the experts were always wrong. He went on:

Economic forecasts have been consistently wrong ... The OBR is impeccably independent and all its forecasts have been wrong. The IFS is, I think, now a relatively politically involved operation and it receives a lot of money from the government and from the EU, and therefore is not as independent as it used to be.

(At the weekend the Centre for European Reform published a report saying the UK economy was 2.1% smaller than it otherwise would have been because of Brexit, costing the public finances around £23bn a year.)

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, is in Dublin today. Speaking at an event to mark 20 years since the adoption of the euro, she said Europe should prepare for an influx of financial firms after Brexit, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.

In the near-term, it is critical to ensure that regulatory and supervisory capacities are prepared for the influx of financial firms that will move to continental Europe - and Ireland - as a result of Brexit.

On his LBC phone-in Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative backbencher, has defended his fellow Brexiter Boris Johnson over not voting against Heathrow expansion tonight. Rees-Mogg said he did not know where Johnson would be tonight. When the presenter, Nick Ferrari, put it to him that he should be voting against in view of his promise to lie down in front of the bulldozers to oppose the project, Rees-Mogg replied:

[Johnson] said that as mayor of London. He is no longer mayor of London.

When it was put to Rees-Mogg that that distinction did not matter, he went on:

He stood on the Conservative manifesto last year that said that Heathrow was the preferred choice.

Rees-Mogg went on to say that, when MPs had strong constituency reasons for voting against something that might be in the national interest, abstaining was a reasonable decision. He explained:

I think there’s a very strong national interest in expanding airport capacity, and that means Heathrow. But sometimes the constituency issue is so great that you feeel tyou don’t want to go along with the national interest. I think abstaining in such circumstances is part of that balance. I don’t think it’s unreasonable. And I think Mr Johnson being away is part of that reasonableness.

Johnson is MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in west London. But Johnson started opposing the third runway plan long before he became MP for the constituency, and so it can’t be said that his primary motive is a constituency one.

(There are also claims that many people in Uxbridge actually support Heathrow extension, because it will create employment, but I can’t find polling evidence to back that up.)

Tonight, more than nine years after Gordon Brown’s government announced that it was going ahead with plans to build a third runway at Heathrow (Geoff Hoon was transport secretary at the time - remember him?), MPs will vote on whether the project should go ahead. The government is expected to win comfortably.

But one MP won’t be voting. Boris Johnson was a fierce opponent of the plan when he was London mayor, famously pledging to lie down in front of the bulldozers if necessary to block the project, but, like some other Johnson promises, this one has proved worthless. The foreign secretary won’ be following the government whip and voting for Heathrow expansion. But he won’t be voting against it either; he is taking advantage of a limited exemption from the whip granted to ministers with longstanding objections to the plan, and he will abstain by being conveniently away on some mystery foreign trip (we don’t know where yet).

Last night his Conservative colleague Sarah Wollaston told the Westminster Hour that Johnson should do the honourable thing, resign, and vote against the third runway. Wollaston, who chairs the Commons health committee and the Commons liaison committee, told the programme:

I think this would be an opportunity for a colleague like Boris Johnson to actually put his money where his mouth is.

Referring to Johnson’s promise in 2015 to “lie down in front of those bulldozers” to stop the construction of a third runway, she went on:

No one would expect him to do that, but they might expect him to use this as an opportunity and to resign on a point of principle in order to fulfil that election promise ... We’ve seen a series of gaffes from Boris Johnson. I think many of us are wondering why in fact he has been allowed to stay so long.

Greg Hands, who resigned last week as an international trade minister so that he could honour a promise he made to his constituents at the election to vote against a third runway, seems to think the same. He posted this on Twitter yesterday.

Greg Hands (@GregHands)

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.

June 24, 2018

There will be a lot more on this as the day goes on. The debate starts after 3.30pm.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP and chair of the strongly pro-Brexit European Research Group, hosts his LBC phone-in.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing

11am: Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, gives a speech at the Rusi thinktank.

11.30am: David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, gives a speech on public service reform to the Reform thinktank.

After 3.30pm: MPs begin their debate on Heathrow.

As usual, I will also be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another at the end of the day.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.

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