Leading ladies to join Heathrow demo

Some of London's best-known actresses and models will descend on Parliament on Tuesday to protest over the proposed Heathrow expansion.

Gillian Anderson, Anna Chancellor, Joanna Lumley and Laura Bailey are expected to be among the hundreds who will join the candlelit protest organised by Climate Action Now - known as we CAN - a coalition of high-profile, ecoaware London mothers.

They will gather outside the House of Commons at 6pm wearing T-shirts and carrying placards emblazoned with the words "climate action now".

Their demand is for cross-party action on climate change and scrapping plans for a third runway at Heathrow.

Model and climate campaigner Ms Bailey said she was hoping to appear at the rally, despite having given birth to her second child, Lola, just two weeks ago.

The 35-year-old, who lives in Notting Hill, told the Evening Standard: "Having children does make you more aware of the consequences of the behaviour of our generation. It also gives you a sense of responsibility for the future and the state in which we hand the planet on to the next generation."

She explained that the peaceful event would provide an alternative form of protest for those who would not normally consider taking political action.

Jennifer Nadel, former ITN home affairs editor and a spokeswoman for weCAN, said the movement had snowballed since appearing on the social networking site, Facebook.

The action comes less than two weeks before thousands of Heathrow protesters are due to converge on Sipson, the village that will be razed to the ground if the airport's expansion goes ahead. Plane Stupid's Tamsin Omond, who is coordinating the event on 31 May, said tomorrow's protest would be an important part of the build up.

"This group coming out to protest is really going to scare Gordon Brown. He's already lost a lot of their votes, as the local elections showed.

"These mothers are showing that all forms of protest are ever more legitimate."