Two Liberal Democrat MPs at the party’s conference in Glasgow have tabled an amendment that would allow Gatwick to be exempted from the party’s blanket ban on new runways.
The party leadership backs that plan – putting them on a collision course with many party members who support the ban.
The issue will be debated on the conference floor today (Tuesday).
Sources close to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg are suggesting that airport expansion could take place without increasing carbon emissions due to technological advances, the BBC reported.
The airport expansion amendment has been tabled by Solihull MP Lorely Burt and Stephen Gilbert, who represents St Austell and Newquay.
There is no guarantee that it will be adopted as party policy and it is likely to face resistance, with high profile figures including former London mayoral candidate Lord Paddick expected to speak against it.
Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable has said expansion at Gatwick was “a preferable alternative” and “less problematic” than expansion at Heathrow, which is near to his Twickenham constituency.
Former minister Jeremy Browne is the only senior figure in the party – apart from Cable – to back an extra runway.
“For an internationalist party like the Liberal Democrats to consciously cut us off from the rest of the world would be a big mistake. So I’m with the runway option,” he told BBC Two’s Daily Politics.
Lib Dem transport minister Baroness Kramer said the government must be prepared to defy the recommendation of Sir Howard Davies’ Airports Commission, which is due to report after the general election.
“Any government that says ‘we will automatically do what Davies recommends’ is abdicating the responsibility they were elected to exercise,” she told a fringe meeting.
The commission’s three shortlisted options include adding a third runway at Heathrow, lengthening an existing runway at Heathrow, and a new runway at Gatwick.