Mayor of London Boris Johnson has urged the government to resist calls for a third runway at Heathrow and concentrate on expanding other airports, including Gatwick.
Attending a rally against expansion of the west London transport hub Mr Johnson said it would be “totally nuts” for the Conservatives to go to the polls without having buried the idea.
He said: “It is just too difficult to deliver – 15 years at least it would take to bring about.
“Above all you would be inflicting noise pollution not just on west London but on huge parts of London that don’t even know they are going to be affected.
“That is not the right way forward for the greatest city on earth.”
The protest in Barnes, west London, attracted around 1,000 residents who live under the airport’s flight path.
He told the BBC that alternatives offered by Sussex’s Gatwick, Stansted and two sites in the Thames Estuary should be concentrated on and the idea of Heathrow expansion “closed down”.
Johnson favours a new “Boris island” airport in the Thames Estuary or possible expansion at Stansted.
Gatwick cannot add a second runway until 2020 because an agreement with its neighbours, but the airport wants to press ahead with expansion after that.
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