Aviation Security

Gavin Shuker Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on recent changes to aviation security.

[The Secretary of State for Transport (Chris Grayling)]

The safety and security of the travelling public will always be our paramount concern, and this Government will not hesitate in putting in place any measures that we believe are necessary, effective and proportionate. That why we took the decision yesterday to step up some of our aviation security measures in response to potential threats, as set out in a written statement yesterday afternoon.

The new measures will be applied to all inbound direct flights to the United Kingdom from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. We have explained the decision at all levels with our partners in the region. We have also spoken to European partners with significant interests in aviation, such as Germany and France, and partners elsewhere whose travellers and carriers may be affected. The House will be aware that the United States Government made a similar announcement shortly before ours regarding flights to the United States, and we have been in close contact with them to fully understand their position. While the UK has some of the most robust aviation security measures in the world, we can never be complacent. That is why we continue to work in conjunction with our international partners and the wider aviation industry to keep security under constant review and to ensure that new measures are introduced in a way that keeps the level of disruption that they may cause to passengers to a minimum.

Passengers boarding flights to the UK from the countries I have listed will not be allowed to take any phones, laptops or tablets larger than a normal-sized mobile phone. We have specified the maximum dimensions to assist both airlines and passengers: a length of 16 cm, a width of 9.3 cm, and a depth of 1.5 cm. Passengers are advised to take some simple steps at check-in to prepare by placing personal electronic devices into their hold luggage before going through central security. Normal cabin baggage restrictions will continue to apply. Passengers should check online with their airline or airport for further information. My Department is working round the clock with the industry to ensure that passengers get the information they need when and where they need it. While we will do everything we can to minimise the disruption to people’s journeys and we understand the frustration that may be caused, our top priority will always be to ensure that public safety is maintained.

These new measures are concerned with flights into the United Kingdom. The UK is not advising against flying to and from the affected countries, and those with imminent travel plans should contact their airline for further information—the Foreign and Commonwealth Office also publishes travel advice on its website. UK airports have been informed, and my officials have asked them to consider standing up their own contingency arrangements, should they be needed.

The whole House will recognise that we face a constantly evolving threat from terrorism and must respond accordingly to ensure the protection of the public against those who would do us harm. The changes we are making to our security measures are an important part of that process, and I assure the House that we will continue to work closely with airlines, airports and the wider travel industry over the coming weeks to ensure that passengers know what is expected of them. I ask for passengers’ patience as the new measures bed in.

I will continue to keep the House updated on developments.

[Mr Shuker]

This is a major change to our aviation security regulations and carries serious potential for delay and confusion for UK passengers.

First, will the Secretary of State explain why the UK and US bans were announced within hours of one another yet provide for different countries, different airlines and, in effect, different devices? The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco, for example, are all affected by the US ban but are not included in the UK ban. No US operator is affected, but six British airlines are. Size restrictions on electronic items differ between the two.

The Washington Post reports that US officials have been discussing new restrictions for more than a fortnight. When exactly did Ministers first learn of those potential changes? Does the Secretary of State agree that, to avoid passenger confusion and delay, efforts should be made to harmonise the bans? And for what specific reasons did he exclude fewer countries than the US?

Secondly, passengers presently booked to fly from one of the affected airports are unclear about what the ban will mean for them in practice. For the increasing number of passengers who fly on “hand baggage only” fares, what procedures have been put in place proactively to communicate changes before they turn up at security queues at a busy airport? Will UK passengers have to buy luggage in order to carry their electronic devices? What discussions has the Secretary of State had with insurers, who do not routinely cover electronics carried in the hold, and what assessment has he made of the security of affected airports against theft and damage to devices?

Thirdly, efficacy. Have the restrictions been introduced in response to a specific threat that differs in nature from the al-Shabaab attack on an aircraft out of Mogadishu, which took place more than a year ago and did not result in the loss of the aircraft? Have checks on such items been stepped up, in addition to changes to their placement on aircraft? And what evidence does the Secretary of State have that placing potentially problematic items in the hold is safer than placing them in the cabin, especially as potentially explosive devices, such as lithium-ion batteries, have been banned from hold luggage?

Aviation security is rightly under constant review. Can the Secretary of State assure us that all has been done to ensure that these regulations are effective, consistent and put the passenger first?

[Chris Grayling]

First, on aviation security, let me make it clear that we respond to the evolving threat we face from terrorists. There are some things that we make public, and there are others that we do not. I will not give the hon. Gentleman full details of the background to the decision, which we took in response to an evolving threat—he would not expect me to do that. Suffice it to say to the House that we have taken these steps for good reason.

On the difference between the approaches of the United Kingdom and the United States; the approach of the United States is a matter for them. As would be expected, we have considered all the evolving information before us to reach a decision about what we believe is in the interest of the United Kingdom and the protection of our citizens.

The hon. Gentleman asked why the measure does not affect US operators, and the answer is that they do not currently fly to the affected destinations; other airlines do. We have applied our change to the requirements to all airlines, both UK and non-UK, that fly the affected routes. On the question of timing, we keep the matter under constant review and have done so for some time. We have taken this decision because we believe it is the right one to take against the background of the evolving threat.

The hon. Gentleman asked about people travelling with hand baggage only. That is very much a matter for the airlines to resolve. We have been in detailed discussions with them in recent days, and they are now preparing to implement this new change. It will be for individual airlines to establish exactly how to handle passengers who are booked on hand baggage-only tickets. I will write today to the Association of British Insurers to ask it to be mindful of this issue. The hon. Gentleman made an important point about the risk of theft, and we will ask the insurance industry to be careful to be mindful of and realistic about this. We have taken this decision in a way that we believe is necessary to protect the safety of UK passengers, but the hon. Gentleman will forgive me and understand if I say that the background to every decision of this kind that we take is inevitably based on matters that we cannot automatically put into the public arena.

Leaving the EU: Aviation Sector

Gavin Shuker Excerpts

Friday 25th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

The last time we sat back in our airline seats we might have asked ourselves several questions. How does this big metal tube stay in the air? Will I have to show my awful passport photo? How many gins and tonics is too many to ask for without feeling an abiding and deep sense of shame? One question we almost certainly did not ask, unless we were a Government lawyer perhaps, is whether we would even be able to go on that plane after Britain leaves the European Union.

In my constituency of Luton South that is not an academic question, as tens of thousands of local jobs depend on a successful and thriving aviation sector. Luton airport serves in excess of 14 million passengers each year and is growing at double-digit rates every year. Almost all of those people are travelling to other EU destinations. TUI Travel has a significant base in Luton and through its brand, Thomson Airways, drives a huge amount of traffic through UK airports, and easyJet, of course, is the UK’s largest airline today: a FTSE 100 company that has changed the way we fly and, indeed, think about flying. In the words of its current chief executive, it simply would not exist if it were not for the EU.

Aviation is a permissive regime, not a free-for-all. That means there must be an agreement in place between the countries we wish to fly from and to to get off the ground in the first place. The UK has agreements with some 155 countries, which vary in both their scope and specificity. Some are extremely restrictive, governing down to individual flight slots and specified airlines. Far and away the most permissive that we are signatories to are the 42 air service agreements in place through our continued membership of the EU. To make an obvious point explicit, they account for, and enable, the largest share of UK aviation traffic.

Twenty-five years ago, the deals we participated in across Europe were at the restrictive end of the scale. But, largely at the UK’s behest, these liberalised massively through the 1990s. Today, any British airline can fly anywhere it likes in the EU—that is anywhere, at any time. The EU single aviation market is separate from the single market in goods, services, capital and labour, but is no less significant in terms of the freedom it has enabled. A UK airline can sell tickets to anyone across the 28 member states without restriction; it can fly between member states, or even within another member state.

Let us consider what that means for easyJet, for example. Luton-based, it can operate flights from, say, France to Germany all day long without the aircraft ever touching down wheels at a British airport. It can operate between Milan and Naples, both of which are in Italy—I know that because I did a fact check just before the debate—with no problem whatever. As well as benefiting the local economies through direct employment, enabling connectivity and all the other benefits that aviation brings, that company’s profit today flows back into the United Kingdom.

The single market in aviation does not just benefit UK airlines; it has transformed our everyday experience of flight. Fares across Europe are down by around 40% in real terms, with greater choice and competition, and new routes across the EU opening up all the time. Britain has done particularly well under this regime, with about 1 million people in work today because of aviation. We are a world-leading nation in aviation services, and we represent a quarter, by nationality, of all European passengers. Should the Prime Minister stick to her original Brexit timetable, in a little over two years the UK will be out not just of the EU but of the European single aviation market. With no automatic fall-back for the governance of aviation rights, and no World Trade Organisation framework, there will be no legal right to operate flights to Madrid, Munich, Malaga or anywhere else in the 42 countries covered by the current EU-level framework.

It is true that we retain an experienced and capable air services negotiation team at the Department for Transport, but I must point out to any Brexiteers who are still in denial and saying, “Don’t worry about Europe; our future lies elsewhere” that the end of our membership of the EU will have a knock-on effect on many other nations as well. What could be more Brexity than leaving old Europe behind and traversing the jet stream on a flight to the United States? Well, even Concorde as she was in her heyday could not get us there after we exit the EU. Our agreement with the US is in place—yes, you guessed it—through our relationship with the rest of Europe.

The 2008 open skies agreement enables any EU or US-based carrier to fly any transatlantic route it likes. This has opened up new destinations and enhanced regional economies here in the United Kingdom. We have done particularly well under this arrangement, given our fortunate geographical location to the west of the continent. Should we be forced to fall back on our previous agreement, Bermuda II, which dates back to 1946 and was last amended more than 25 years ago, we would be lumbered with a document that considered it necessary to make regulation about flights into London airports alone. And that is not the only deficiency in that agreement or the others that are in place as back-stop provisions to the current EU agreements.

So before we even begin to think about the additional complicating issues, the effect of Brexit on UK airlines and export revenue alone should make us realise that we have a real headache here. Additional issues include: the need to reconfigure immigration reception at UK airports, where e-passport gates can be used only by EEA nationals; the replacement of a soft border regime by a more restrictive one; and the lengthening of process times, resulting in the need to expand Border Force staff numbers significantly. We also need to consider the role of freight. Heathrow is currently the UK’s largest port, and the customs code will add complexity and cost. Similarly, airports such as East Midlands derive much of their revenue from goods travelling on a just-in-time basis.

The UK is a leading and active member of the European Aviation Safety Agency, the rule-setting body that deals with the safe operation of civil aviation. That body has reduced costs to UK airlines, and indeed to the taxpayer, and enabled interoperability across the continent. We must also consider the significant implications for UK aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Airbus is our national project and it is showcasing some of the best that Britain can do, but it could now face uncertainty about the wings we manufacture in Wales. It certainly faces additional cost and complexity.

Let me say a word about why singling out aviation among the myriad small disasters wrought by Brexit is not special pleading, but a necessary task. Aviation agreements are different. They have always been treated separately from other trade agreements, even within the EU, because they are a prerequisite for getting such deals done in the first place. An aviation deal is a necessary first piece of the puzzle that is the process of negotiation with the rest of Europe, and it needs to be done ahead of any final settlement. The freedoms that the single aviation market have brought us are an enabler of negotiations and of trade and co-operation. This issue not only affects our relationship with the EU 27, but shapes our air routes, customers and markets in the rest of the world.

In 2015, UK airlines transported 250 million passengers to destinations around the globe and contributed £50 million to the British economy. The Government say they do not wish to pick winners, but we are first class at this. As I mentioned earlier, easyJet is not only the biggest UK airline, but the fourth biggest EU airline. Just consider that for a moment: from Luton to the world. EasyJet’s chief executive, Dame Carolyn McCall, has said:

“We are not saying there will be no agreement”,

and for the record, I take the same view. Nevertheless, she went on to say:

“We just don’t know the shape or form. We don’t have the luxury of waiting…we have to take control of our own future.”

EasyJet will never leave Luton as an operational base, but it is in the process of establishing a new and separate operation outside the UK to ensure that it can continue to fly as it does now. That is entirely understandable, and its commitment to the UK is laudable, but the uncertainty is having an effect right now.

What is to be done? First, the Government must take action, and rapidly. Aviation should be at the head of our negotiations. We have very little to fall back on, and the uncertainty is affecting us today. An agreement on the air services market should be reached early in the two-year window for article 50 negotiations, with the aim of securing maximum continuity for both UK and EU operators when we exit the European Union in spring 2019. To do so would benefit us and the remaining 27 states. It is not about cherry-picking from the single market, and it is not a trade issue that should be entangled with the wider negotiations. The deal I am describing is exactly the kind of thing the EU tries to achieve with third countries—in effect, an open skies agreement that maintains the continuity of access and equality across the UK and the EU 27.

Secondly, we need to push for a deal that is as close as possible to the one we have today, and it should include the right for UK airlines to operate between and within member states. The package we negotiated in the 1990s worked well because we worked together. The balance of rights has enriched us all, so we should be clear about the impact on UK airlines should we not achieve the aim of maintaining it.

Thirdly, we should seek to retain not only membership but influence of those bodies, such as the European Aviation Safety Agency, that set the rules and regulations for safe flying. Absolutely no one has a problem with one common set of standards across Europe when it comes to aviation safety. The EASA has benefited considerably from the UK’s expertise; we are a strong voice that should not be lost.

There are a couple of ways to achieve the aims I have set out, and I hope the Minister will be forthcoming about his negotiating stance when he responds. The first step would be to become part of the European common aviation area, which extends the liberalised aviation market beyond the EU and covers 36 countries, including our friends in Iceland and Norway. The other step would be a bilateral air transport agreement, as, indeed, Switzerland has negotiated, but such an agreement would necessarily take longer to negotiate and carry its own complexities. It is essential, however, to avoid slipping back with no deal at all and having to rely on age-old agreements that are no longer fit for the times that we fly in. A series of bilateral agreements would be bad, but falling back on past agreements would not be desirable either.

Exiting the EU cannot be done without some cost to us. The price of doing business will inevitably be a loss of influence over the rules and direction of the single market, but that should be minimised to the maximum degree. Certainty is the most important thing. The Government must not use aviation as a bargaining chip; they should come out and say that a separate agreement is required and that they will seek one out on the existing terms. Whatever the reason for the UK’s voting to leave the EU, it was not to make flying more restrictive, with more red tape and at a higher price, or with less choice for the passenger. For all our sakes, with our future now dependent on our being able to trade with the whole world, we need the first deal of the post-Brexit universe to be a good one.

Airport Capacity

Gavin Shuker Excerpts

Tuesday 25th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

The modernisation of UK airspace will hopefully make all airports better neighbours. This is a system that has barely changed for decades, and it is certainly not designed for the current patterns of usage. We very much believe that we need to modernise the use of airspace in a way that reduces stacking, for example. I know, because my constituency adjoins that of my hon. Friend, that stacking certainly affects our area. This modernisation is better for passengers and better for people on the ground; and it will also save fuel and thus reduce carbon emissions.

[Mr Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

A majority of Labour MPs and a majority of Conservative MPs support the expansion at Heathrow. Given that this project is likely to span multiple Parliaments, will the right hon. Gentleman take the opportunity to set a good example for both parties and ensure that collective responsibility will apply to any votes in this House?

[Chris Grayling]

The Prime Minister has been very clear that she does not want to force—indeed, I do not think the public would expect us to force—MPs who have long-standing principles of disagreement over this issue to go against their own views. There are different views on both sides. There are senior figures on the Opposition Front Bench and on the Government Front Bench who disagree with this decision. The hon. Gentleman is right that the majority of Members believe that Heathrow is the right place for expansion. Of course, the whole House will, as part of this statutorily defined process, have to vote and approve the decision. I think we should respect people’s long-standing views and not ask them to go against what they have argued in the past.

Luton Railway Station

Gavin Shuker Excerpts

Friday 11th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

It was my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) who last secured a debate on the rebuilding of Luton railway station, some 2,179 days ago. I regret to inform the House that, despite his powers of persuasion, and mine since I was elected to this place, progress on the rebuild, which the Government, the council and the operator all agree needs to go ahead, has not advanced in that period at all, and in some areas it has gone backward.

That is despite the fact that Luton is easily in the top decile of stations, in terms of passenger numbers, and is growing rapidly, serving an urban conurbation in excess of a quarter of a million people. My constituents and I daily experience the frustration of this old, tired and inaccessible station. As a result of how it is situated, even non-passengers are disadvantaged by its presence and current state. It effectively cuts off the town centre to pedestrians with mobility issues coming from the vast majority of the town to the north.

My constituents pay some of the highest ticket prices in the south-east, but virtually none of that is reinvested in our station. Residents have to put up with a total lack of disabled facilities for getting down to the platforms, and those passing between High Town and South wards cannot travel either way with their pushchairs or heavy baggage on the regular stretches where the station’s single lift is inoperable, even if they are not seeking to access the station in the first place. Frustratingly, we have been close to securing the requisite funding on multiple occasions, only for our hopes to be dashed. I seek the Minister’s assurance today that the rebuild project is a priority for her Department and, if so, that it can proceed in this control period.

Built in 1868 on the midland main line, Luton station expanded in a piecemeal manner in the 1930s and the 1960s to serve a growing town. It was key to the expansion of my home town, serving the town’s gas works, power station and industries such as hat making and, later, car making. However, over the last century, Luton’s proximity to London has led to a massive growth in commuter traffic. We are just 22 minutes from St Pancras by direct train, and we link directly to towns such as Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Brighton, to name but a few. In short, Luton is a major railway station that is key to the south-east network and to our town’s prosperity.

However, the station also serves as the gateway to our borough and, as such, first appearances matter. If the Minister were to make the short journey up to Luton today, she would be greeted by runs of heavy glass windows that have been boarded up because they have a tendency to fall out on to the tracks and, potentially, on to passengers below. If it were raining, she might see the ingeniously named platform 3 “water feature”, which cascades down from the bridge above. As she exited our inadequate ticket gates and took the overcrowded stairs heaving her ministerial boxes, she would have to hope that the station’s lift was working—this week, by the way, it is not. My constituents report that the station is inconvenient, grubby, unwelcoming and embarrassing. We are proud of our town, but not of our railway station.

Since the 1990s, a number of abortive schemes have sought to rectify the situation. Luton Borough Council has invested heavily in the station quarter, with improved links to Dunstable and the airport through the landmark guided busway, giving access to education and employment opportunities to the east and west. Local businesses and charities have bought and restored the old hat factories that sprung up in the 1800s around the station, and the area is a hub of activity and young, creative businesses, with many people wanting to start their entrepreneurial careers there. The business improvement district and The Mall have improved access to the town centre and its appearance, and the town’s single further education college intends to relocate to a new build just metres from the station. The new Network Rail-built car park is an iconic building and a statement of investment in the town. In short, the area has been transformed and befits a town of the size and status of ours.

However, just as the surrounding context has improved, the station itself has gone backwards. The net effect of the £6 billion Thameslink programme investment in Luton station and the surrounding area, which I welcome, has actually been to further diminish the facility’s accessibility—that surely cannot have been the aim of the programme—because 12-car running has cut off access for those with mobility problems.

The 2009 better stations programme identified Luton as one of the 10 worst stations in the country and gave the project sponsors access to a £50 million fund intended to improve category B railway stations. To unlock the potential of the scheme, that funding was to be provided alongside contributions from the local authority and the then operator—First Capital Connect—as well as Access for All funding. However, on the election of the coalition Government in 2010, the money was pulled, without a plan to proceed. Despite my best efforts and those of the local authority, the project stalled, and it has not advanced since.

Let me turn to the present situation. In April 2014, the Government announced that Luton was one of 42 stations that would be authorised to access about £100 million of Access for All funding. That was for the control period 5 delivery plan, which runs from 2014 to 2019. Access for All funding is key to advancing the project. In stark terms, there are two options available: either we use the funding to deliver a stand-alone footbridge, disconnected from the station, but seemingly offering better accessibility; or we use it to leverage in funding for a larger redevelopment.

The first option is a non-starter. If the footbridge were disconnected from the railway station, it would offer greater accessibility to only a small number of my constituents. It would not link to the station’s car park, in which there has already been significant investment, or to the ticket office or the retail sites. Once used, the funding could not be used to leverage in further funding from other available sources.

Assurances from Network Rail, the station redevelopment sponsor, that that could be the first phase of a multi-phase development spanning the control period—that is what Network Rail has advocated to me recently—are politically naïve. Once the legal requirements were fulfilled, the moral imperative for greater, more positive improvements to the station would be quietly sidelined and dropped.

Therefore, the second option—that of a comprehensive scheme made up of funding from the station commercial project facility, the national stations improvement programme, Access for All, the Thameslink operator, local government and commercial funds—is vastly superior and appropriate for our needs. That is the route by which we would seek to deliver the approximately £20 million required for a perfectly adequate scheme.

The dilemma is that either we spend the Access for All funding, which would meet a legal requirement and would be delivered in this control period, or we delay the project in the hope of securing additional Department for Transport funding for an adequate scheme, which would cost time and delay delivery. The Access for All scheme, together with funding from other sources, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get this job done.

There is, of course, a third option, namely that the Department demonstrates that this is a priority scheme and signals that a masterplan should be agreed for the delivery of improvements starting before the end of this control period in 2019. The Minister has the power to make that happen, and I ask her to do it.

Having worked actively on the issue in recent months, alongside my local authority colleagues, I am pleased to say that Network Rail has accepted that we will not accept a stand-alone footbridge project and is now working with Luton Borough Council to create a masterplan. It will incorporate some of the elements of the previous options, but it will seek more straightforward ways to deliver the benefits. The local authority has been generous in authorising the early release of funds to enable that, and Network Rail has provided match funding. The council recognises that the improvement of the station is complex. There are constraints on public finances and it will involve the pulling together of a number of different pots of funding, but this really is the only way forward.

Last month, the Secretary of State for Transport wrote in a letter to Luton Borough Council:

“I agree with you that the condition of the station needs to be addressed and that investment is needed to bring it up to the standard Luton residents have every right to expect.”

With that in mind, I ask the Minister to consider a few points. First, will she ensure that, in the forthcoming Budget, the Chancellor understands the depth of feeling among my constituents and takes the first step towards the delivery of a new masterplan by approving Govia’s £2.5 million bid for station commercial project facility funding? That is a vital part of the various pots of funding that will need to be assembled, and it will ensure the political viability of such an approach.

Secondly, will the Minister instruct her officials to create a publicly transparent timescale and work programme for the project, and ensure that it is given prioritisation by both Network Rail and the Department for Transport, with a named lead officer at the Department?

Thirdly, will she take this opportunity to make it clear that a footbridge-only or footbridge-first scheme is unacceptable? It would reduce mobility for some and permanently exclude it for others. Will she instruct Network Rail to drop that idea forever and instead work to expedite progress on the masterplan with Luton Borough Council?

Fourthly, and finally, will the Minister give an assurance that she will do all in her power to ensure that a comprehensive project starts in control period 5, with shovels in the ground before the end of that control period in 2019? It would be understandable if a project of such a size and scale sought to span control periods, but it would be unacceptable for my residents and businesses, who have shown great forbearance in recent years, to continue to suffer from the state of the station through to the mid-2020s at least.

Last year, 100,000 more passengers entered and exited Luton station than in the preceding year. We are a growing town, and we need adequate facilities. We need this Government to do the right thing, as I hope the Minister wants to do, by the people of Luton.

Airport Expansion: East Anglia

Gavin Shuker Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Westminster Hall

[Sir Alan Haselhurst]

I agree with my hon. Friend. Stansted would, of course, see itself as already being that engine of growth. Its presence is undoubtedly a major factor in the investment decisions being made by some very important businesses.

[Mr Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

To the right hon. Gentleman’s relief, I do not intend to speak about Luton airport, which is based in my constituency. I hope that my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins)—my good friend—will talk about it later. To underline the point, in the analysis on east-west rail, one of the most interesting growth pairs between two different places over the next 15 years will be between Luton and Essex. East-west applies both on the eastern and western sides of the region.

[Sir Alan Haselhurst]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I think there is something called “the golden triangle,” and I certainly do not reject the idea of the east-west connections in any way, but we do not have the money to do everything. I concentrate on this line as a priority, simply because, at the moment, it is the main link between the city and the airport and it has had so much neglect over these past years.

--- Later in debate ---

[Daniel Zeichner]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that point. As a historian, I always find it interesting to note which point in history people like to go back to in order to attribute blame but, as the Opposition representative in the Chamber, I fear it is my role to make these important points about the potential damage being done to our country by the Government’s lack of decision. We shall see. Probably after the London mayoral election, all will become clear.

Once the Government set out their expansion recommendation, we will be able to examine its relative merits properly based on four tests that the Labour party has set out, including commitments to meet our legal climate change obligations and mitigate local environmental impacts. Only then can we truly assess the impact that expansion will have on the south-east, the wider Anglian region and the rest of the UK.

We know now that, regardless of the decision made, its effects will not be felt quickly. A new runway will take about a decade to come into being, even without further delay in Government decision making. Thus any short-term changes should positively impact the connectivity of our country, including our region. Indeed, the fourth test that Labour set out to inform our response before the publication of the Airports Commission report was that the benefits of any expansion should not be confined to London and the south-east. The Government might be standing still, but the aviation industry will not. We must act to help connect UK businesses and people with new markets and places in the meantime.

The Airports Commission has also called for the improvement of surface access links to other airports, which has formed the basis for much of our discussion in this debate. In its response to Network Rail’s consultation on the Anglia route strategy, the Airports Commission called for a more joined-up approach to meeting the needs of Stansted airport users. Improving rail infrastructure to Stansted is a key request of both Stansted and the London-Stansted-Cambridge Consortium. It is worth noting in passing that the current Stansted Express service uses a relatively new fleet of trains introduced under a Labour Government.

[Mr Shuker]

My hon. Friend is making the point that surface access is key to all airports, including Luton airport in my constituency. It sets the airport’s reputational standard. People do not judge an airport based only on the airlines, the airport itself or the journey there but on the whole experience. Certainly in Luton, surface access is letting us down at the moment.

[Daniel Zeichner]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I suspect that we can all agree on that. I assure the right hon. Member for Saffron Walden that we heartily agree with his argument about improving surface access. I am absolutely sure that local commuters would benefit, including those in my constituency. We can agree that the Government should invest in a West Anglia line, making life that little bit easier for many in our region.

To conclude, the Government need to stop dawdling and decide. Until they get their policy off the ground, we will be unconvinced that they are taking environmental concerns and capacity needs seriously. While in this state of flux, the Government could still take decisive steps to improve access to our country’s airports, helping provide short-term solutions to capacity and connectivity problems. Anything less would do a disservice to people and businesses in our region and across the UK.