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UK Chancellor Healey Backs Heathrow Third Runway, Breaking With PM Burnham

UK Chancellor John Healey has backed plans for a third runway at Heathrow, telling reporters at the IMF annual meetings in Bangkok that “the case for a third runway at Heathrow has always been about growth.” The stance risks a split with Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who declined to say whether he supports expanding the UK’s largest airport, calling it “a matter for London and Londoners” and saying he is “open-minded.” The Department for Transport estimates the expansion would create 60,000 local jobs and deliver up to £42bn in economic benefits.

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AI take

The split matters less for aviation than for what it signals about the government's internal balance on growth-versus-local-consent politics: a chancellor openly staking out an infrastructure position the prime minister will not endorse is a governing arrangement worth watching. The Heathrow case also sits at the centre of a broader UK tension between airport capacity and climate commitments, which the exchange here does not resolve. Whether Burnham's ambiguity hardens into opposition or the chancellor's framing carries the cabinet is the open question.

Generated by AI for reference only.

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