- Tim Yeo attacked Mr Cameron and said he needs to be more like Margaret Thatcher and less like Harold Macmillan
- A third runway is the only option, Yeo said, as Britain is 'falling behind' the rest of the world
- Unless the PM backs it he will be toppled as leader, he claims
By Daniel Martin and Martin Robinson
PUBLISHED: 17:38 EST, 27 August 2012 | UPDATED: 03:21 EST, 28 August 2012
A senior Tory believes David Cameron must ask himself if he is 'a man or a mouse?' and unless he backs a third runway at Heathrow the Prime Minister will lose his job.
Former Environment minister Tim Yeo today launched an astonishing attack on his leader and urged him to ignore his Lib Dem coalition colleagues and back expansion at Britain's largest airport.
Mr Yeo, a once vociferous opponent of the scheme, warned that unless Mr Cameron is bold in his decisions he risks sinking into 'insignificance' and will be toppled as Tory leader.
Hard choices: David Cameron has been told he must back expansion at Heathrow to show intent and perhaps save his job
Last night, in an article in a national newspaper, Mr Yeo said Mr Cameron must 'find his sense of mission' and drop his objection to a third runway.
'The Prime Minister must ask himself whether he is a man or a mouse,' he said.
'Does he want to be another Harold Macmillan, presiding over a dignified slide to insignificance?
'Or is there somewhere inside his heart... a trace of Thatcher, determined to reverse the direction of our ship?
'An immediate go-ahead for a third runway will symbolise the start of a new era, the moment the Cameron government found its sense of mission. Let's go for it.'
Mr Yeo said he had changed his mind over a third runway after realising the UK was 'falling behind' in aviation capacity.
His intervention comes just days after housing minister Grant Shapps hinted that a future Tory government could consider the option.
Meanwhile senior Lib Dem sources say that a third Heathrow runway will never be agreed while they are helping run the country.
Man or mouse? Tim Yeo has urged his leader to be bold or face drifting into 'insignificance' like some former Prime Ministers before him
During his election campaign, the Prime Minister promised not to build a third runway, in a bid to attract green voters.
But in recent months the Tories have been wavering, amid fears their stance on airport expansion could be hurting the economy.
The Lib Dems remain totally opposed, as do some senior Tories, including transport secretary Justine Greening and backbencher Zac Goldsmith.
Meanwhile London Mayor Boris Johnson is pushing for an alternative scheme – an airport on an island in the Thames estuary.
Mr Yeo, chairman of the Commons energy and climate change committee, yesterday told the BBC he had dropped his opposition to a third Heathrow runway, which had been one of his key green beliefs.
He told Radio 4's Today programme: 'This is a race in which Britain is now falling behind and we need to get back into it.
'The business world is quite clear our lack of airport capacity means they have a disadvantage competitively against the rest of Europe.' Expansion would also 'create jobs and be welcomed by the construction industry', he said.
'The airlines are among the people pushing for this now very badly needed expansion so that we don't continue to lose out against airports like Frankfurt and Charles de Gaulle, both of whom have twice as many destinations in China, twice as many flights going to China.'
However, he said, airlines might need to pay more for their emissions if capacity were to increase.
TRANSPORT SECRETARY COULD QUIT IF THIRD RUNWAY IS BACKED
Transport Secretary Justine Greening admitted today she would find it 'difficult' to remain in a Government which backed a third runway at Heathrow as David Cameron faced renewed pressure to approve the expansion.
Senior Conservative Tim Yeo questioned whether the Prime Minister had the character to take the politically explosive decision, which would involve tearing up the Coalition Agreement and risk a damaging split within his own party.
But the Transport Secretary, a prominent campaigner against a third runway which she fears would directly affect the quality of life of her constituents in Putney, south-west London, insisted there was now a consensus against the development.
She said a third runway would not be 'the right thing for Britain' because it would become rapidly outdated and insisted that a wholesale review of air capacity was needed.
Asked on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme whether she could continue to serve in Government if a third runway was approved, she said: 'I think it would be difficult for me to do that.
'This won't be a full length runway and it can't take the modern bigger planes we need in the long term.
'The coalition agreement is very clear, we don't support a third runway at Heathrow.'
There was a need to be 'bold' and look at including the possibility of a new hub airport like Boris Island, she said.
'It's clearly one of the options. It will be open to people to put that forward as an option.'
Mr Yeo, a former environment minister, said he had previously been against airport expansion in the South East because he believed it would 'inevitably lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions'. But he said he changed his stance after aircraft emissions were brought within an overall EU cap for all industries in January.
He argued this meant that as long as other industries continue to cut their emissions, those from aviation can increase.
'Even if we covered the whole of Surrey and Berkshire in new runways, it wouldn't actually lead to a single kilogram of extra greenhouse gas emissions taking place,' he said. Mr Yeo has faced calls to quit the climate change committee after it emerged earlier this month that he was paid £140,000 last year from the renewable energy sector.
Addressing arguments by campaigners that a third runway would lead to intolerable noise, Mr Yeo said failing to expand Heathrow could in fact lead to more noise.
He said: 'If you have a big, modern hub airport, airlines fly their most modern and quietest aircraft in there. If Heathrow falls behind, the quiet aircraft will go to Frankfurt, they'll go to Paris."
Former Labour chancellor Alastair Darling told the programme: 'Heathrow has more destinations than most other airports in the world. The advantage of Heathrow is it is there now, we can't go on putting this decision off.'
John Stewart, of the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise, said: 'The Department for Transport's own figures show we have sufficient capacity, even in London and the South East, until almost 2030.'
Jane Thomas, of Friends of the Earth, said: 'The Tories were emphatic there would be no Heathrow expansion in 2010, and we still expect that commitment.'
He argued that the fact that airlines have been brought within the EU cap on carbon emissions meant that airlines will have to develop greener planes to take advantage of an expanded Heathrow.
