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CONCRETE EVIDENCE OF GOVERNMENT FAVOURS 'Honest John' Prescott's M25 U-turn Shows Bias on Terminal 5

10 Jul 1998

When the last Tory Government announced the scheme - condemned by John Prescott in opposition as “lunacy” - the justification was access to Heathrow Terminal 5. The planning enquiry for T5 has lasted over thee years, and has yet to finish. FOE has called the widening decision “a blatant favour to New Labour's closest business backers” and “the last piece of evidence needed to show that the Government is in the pocket of BAA and British Airways.”

Paul de Zylva, London Campaigns Coordinator said:

“This is another broken green promise by Labour. John Prescott is feebly posturing about bus lanes, as a sop to angry environmentalists and local people. But this piece of blatant greenwash will not hide the fact that Mr Prescott, Glenda Jackson and Labour said they would scrap M25 widening. The only reason for widening the M25 is to assist their friends BAA and British Airways who want to build Heathrow Terminal Five. It looks as if BA and BAA's large bungs to the Millennium Dome are about to pay off.

“If the scheme goes ahead the Terminal 5 public inquiry should simply be abandoned. There is no point pretending anymore that the Government is acting impartially or neutrally. Not only has the Government used the same witnesses as BAA at the T5 inquiry - it is now building roads for them.”