Green or growth? Labour must pick a side

The Labour government might have actually done something sensible this week.

On Monday, it approved plans to increase the passenger capacity of London City Airport by more than a third. Labour has also signalled that it is ‘open-minded’ about airport expansion in general where it can boost economic growth.

The London City Airport decision matters, not least because it flies in the face of the noisy objections of the UK’s green ‘blob’. Environmental campaigners, leftish think-tanks and, most notably, the unelected technocrats of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) had been providing a dour chorus of opposition to the airport’s expansion. Indeed, the CCC imperiously decreed last year that ‘no airport expansions should proceed’ in the UK, until their climate impacts can be determined and offset (in other words, don’t bother). Most green lobbyists are determined to bring an end to air travel and will happily strangle the economy to do so.

So, after the London City Airport decision, can we rest assured that the government will continue to put the national economic interest ahead of the demands of hysterical eco-whingers? Of course not.

Let’s not forget, Labour remains stubbornly committed to the UK’s punishing Net Zero targets. It has blocked new oil and gas developments in the North Sea, threatening one of our most successful industries and hundreds of thousands of jobs. It also promises to decarbonise the entire electricity grid in just the next six years. Swapping reliable fossil fuels with unreliable renewables – at breakneck speed – could send energy prices soaring and increase the risk of blackouts.

If the government is serious about getting the economy moving, it needs to end its devotion to environmentalist dogma. Growth and green cannot coexist. Time for Labour to pick a side.

Fraser Myers is deputy editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast. Follow him on X: @FraserMyers.