Tories defend Heathrow plans

The Conservative Party have hit back at Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways, following his criticism of plans to scrap a third runway at Heathrow.

The Tories expressed a desire to scrap plans for a third runway at Britain's biggest airport during their conference in Birmingham last week, instead proposing a high-speed rail-link between London, Leeds and Manchester.

However, the plans "beggar belief" according to Mr Walsh, who claimed the party were "all over the place on aviation".

Now the Conservatives have hit back with shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers claiming Walsh and the government of trying to downplay the impact of the proposed high-speed rail links

Ms Villiers said: "BA and the government are trying to spin the figures on flights".

Chris O'Toole