Healey backs Heathrow third runway on growth grounds as PM stays silent

Chancellor John Healey has said there is a pro-growth case for building a third runway at Heathrow, putting his weight behind the project even though the prime minister has declined to back it publicly.

Healey's line breaks a silence at the top of government. The prime minister, whom the Guardian identifies in its reporting as having ducked the issue, has refused to offer personal endorsement of the expansion. Healey has now stepped into that gap himself.

What did the chancellor actually say?

Healey said the government will study responses to the public consultation on the runway before deciding how to proceed. He framed airports as an economic asset, calling them a "big part of jobs and growth" — a direct, on-the-record signal that the Treasury still sees aviation capacity as a growth lever.

That's a deliberate message. A chancellor doesn't back a contested infrastructure project by accident. Heathrow expansion carries real political cost: it splits opinion within Labour, draws legal challenges from climate campaigners, and energizes opponents in west London. Healey's comments suggest the government calculates the growth argument outweighs the political risk — or at least wants that argument tested in public.

The consultation itself matters here. Healey committed only to studying the responses, not to approving the runway. That leaves the government room to pause, delay, or attach conditions. But it also keeps the project alive at a moment when the prime minister's silence had raised questions about whether Number 10 still wanted it.

Where does the commitment come from?

The third runway has recent political pedigree inside the Labour government. Healey's predecessor as chancellor, Rachel Reeves, put approval of the long-planned runway at the heart of her "growth speech" last year, positioning Heathrow expansion as a centerpiece of the government's economic strategy.

Reeves was blunt about the ambition. The runway would, in her words, "make Britain the world's best-connected place to do business."

Healey's comments now extend that argument into his own chancellorship. The project has been planned for years without a final decision, and each intervention — Reeves's speech, the public consultation, Healey's backing — moves it one step closer to a formal call while keeping the ultimate verdict technically open.

What happens next?

The immediate next step is analytical: the government reviews what respondents told the public consultation. Opposition to a third runway typically concentrates on carbon emissions, noise, and local disruption, while supporters lean on connectivity, construction jobs, and long-run capacity — the "jobs and growth" case Healey invoked.

The political dynamic is now the thing to watch. A chancellor backing the runway while the prime minister stays quiet creates a public difference of emphasis at the top of government. If Healey's position holds and the consultation responses don't derail the project, the government faces a choice it has deferred for years: approve the runway and absorb the backlash, or shelve it and explain why the growth case its own chancellor just made isn't enough.

By Amara Osei, Business Bearings