UK politician says Heathrow trying to ‘fix local election’

Just what is Heathrow doing to secure a third runway?

The lobbying outfit funded by Heathrow is being reported to the Speaker of the House of Commons for attempting to gerrymander.

The MP for the constituency that includes Heathrow is shadow chancellor John McDonnell and he, like most London politicians, is against Heathrow expansion.

If the UK Government goes ahead with for a third Heathrow runway, the project’s development would be smoother with a pro-expansion MP in place.

Heathrow’s answer, via it’s surrogate Back Heathrow, is to remove Mr McDonnell from the discussion by redrawing the boundaries of the constituency that includes Heathrow.

In the UK this practice is known as gerrymandering but is done by elected politicians. Heathrow and Back Heathrow are private and foreign owned.

gerrymander: manipulate the boundaries of (an electoral constituency) so as to favour one party or class

Mr McDonnell is to complain to both Commons Speaker John Bercow and the Boundaries Commission about this attempt by Back Heathrow to manipulate matters.

Earlier this week, the Evening Standard revealed that Back Heathrow was writing to the Boundary Commission, which is reviewing the parliamentary map, to suggest that Mr McDonnell’s constituency should be changed to exclude Heathrow.

Mr McDonnell told the Standard:

“By seeking to influence a constituency boundary to secure an MP that will effectively become a company lap dog is an outrageous attempt at gerrymandering.”

Mr McDonnell

Mr McDonnell is the UK shadow chancellor. If his party wins the next election, scheduled for 2020, he will be responsible for the country’s finances.

Those finances include the substantial and not yet finalised costs to the UK tax payer of a third Heathrow runway.

Back Heathrow

This outfit is funded by Heathrow and is seen as the bad cop face of the airport.

In 2014 Heathrow was named as the funder of the ‘fake’ campaign group, Back Heathrow,  that claimed Heathrow would become a feeder for Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris without a third runway.

The Back Heathrow leaflets included this claim:

Without a third runway, Heathrow decays to become a small feeder airport to overseas hubs such as Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Heathrow admits paying the group but doesn’t seem to know how much.