Grayling: airport expansion decision to be made on Tuesday

  • Politics
The British government will make a decision on Tuesday whether to allow expansion at Heathrow (pictured) or Gatwick airports. Credit: PA

The British government will make a decision on Tuesday about where to allow airport expansion in south east England, transport minister Chris Grayling said.

He acknowledged that any of the three options on the table - new runways at Heathrow or Gatwick, or extending an existing runway at Heathrow - would be controversial but they would "open up new opportunities for Britain" as it adjusts to Brexit.

The decision has been debated for more than 25 years.

"We have got a genuinely difficult decision... anyone of them could bring benefits to the United Kingdom.

"There is going to be a decision on Tuesday," Grayling told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.

Chris Grayling told the Andrew Marr show that the UK remains key to EU trade. Credit: Andrew Marr Show/BBC

Grayling, a prominent voice in the EU referendum Leave campaign, told Marr - in light of the collapse of the Canadian free trade deal - that the UK was the EU's most important export market.

"Nobody in continental Europe benefits from a reduction in the ability to trade with the United Kingdom," he said.

"I have always been convinced we will have tariff-free trade, we will have sensible trading arrangements, because it is in both our interests that that should happen."