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Tories have taken £291,000 in gifts from airports as Sunak eyes runway U-turn

Donations raise eyebrows with Rishi Sunak expected to reject Climate Change Committee advice on banning expansions

By Adam Bychawski
Tories have taken £291,000 in gifts from airports as Sunak eyes runway U-turn
Heathrow: Tories have accepted over £200,000 in donations in kind from UK airports
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Airport operators have lavished Britain’s last three prime ministers with VIP services worth more than £200,000 since the 2019 election, analysis by openDemocracy has found.

Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May are among the Conservative MPs who have accepted more than £275,000 in donations-in-kind from airport operators, while Conservative Party HQ has also taken more than £13,500 in donations from airport operators.

It comes as the government signals its backing for airport expansions, in contrast with advice from its own climate advisers that adding runways to Heathrow and Gatwick would be incompatible with the UK’s net zero goals. The Department of Transport told openDemocracy it was “supportive of airport expansion where it can be delivered in a sustainable way”.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0