In an interview with New York Magazine published today Mr Johnson again hinted that he may make a bid to lead the Tory Party in the future.
He said: “We have to have a new airport. One of the only reasons I want to assume supreme power in England is to make sure that happens. For God’s sake, don’t quote me saying that.”
In his most outspoken attack yet on the Coalition, Mr Johnson told the Standard he believed Mr Cameron was simply trying to “muddy the waters” by hinting at a possible Heathrow U-turn. He said: “The whole decision to re-open [discussion about] Heathrow is designed to cause confusion — to muddy the waters and allow the process to become delayed for as long as possible. It’s a procrastination device.
“The Government strategy at the moment is divide and rule. It’s a ruse designed to dissipate the energy of a campaign for a new airport.”
Mr Cameron last week repeated the position in the Coalition agreement of no Heathrow expansion until 2015. But he said MPs should not be “blind” to the need to expand airport capacity. A growing number of backbench Conservative MPs believe a bigger Heathrow is needed to boost Britain’s links to China and other emerging markets.
Carol Barbone, campaign director of Stop Stansted Expansion, said: “Stansted is only operating at half its permitted capacity as it is. If the market was interested in using Stansted we would be seeing increasing passenger numbers rather than a month-on-month decline for the past five years. Boris is clutching at straws given the opposition to the Thames Estuary airport.”
A spokesman for airport operator BAA said: “Building a new runway at Stansted will not solve the UK’s hub airport capacity crisis. All a second runway at Stansted would achieve would be to increase the amount of spare capacity there.”
