CAMPAIGNERS fighting the expansion of Heathrow airport lost their High Court challenge to a planned third runway today.

Four judicial reviews of the government’s decision to approve the plans were brought to the court by a group of local councils, residents, environmental charities and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

The case was brought against Transport Secretary Chris Grayling by five London boroughs, Londoners affected by the expansion and groups including Greenpeace, Friends Of The Earth and Plan B.

The campaigners claimed, during a two-week hearing in March, that the government’s national policy statement (NPS) setting out its support for the project failed to address the effects on air quality, climate change, noise and congestion.

Lord Justice Hickinbottom, sitting with Mr Justice Holgate, said in the ruling today: “We understand that these claims involve underlying issues upon which the parties – and indeed many members of the public – hold strong and sincere views.

“There was a tendency for the substance of the parties’ positions to take more of a centre stage than perhaps it should have done, in a hearing that was only concerned with the legality, and not the merits, of the airports national policy statement.”

Construction could begin in 2021, with the third runway operational by 2026.

In a joint statement issued on behalf of Plan B and Extinction Rebellion, Plan B director Tim Crosland said: “It is increasingly difficult to see how the government’s reckless plans to expand Heathrow airport can proceed.

“Following the recent Extinction Rebellion protests, there is widespread recognition that we are in a state of climate and ecological emergency.”

Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said: “Our children’s future, not the aviation industry’s expansion, should be our nation’s number one priority.

“Until it is, our commitment to opposing this disastrous scheme through every avenue available will continue.”

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell – whose Hayes and Harlington constituency includes the airport – said the decision shows that the government is being let “off the hook because it has not adopted the Paris Agreement into UK law.”

Friends of the Earth legal chief Will Rundle said: “This fight will go on; the issue is just too big to drop.”

• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s demand that the government declare a climate emergency was backed by the Fire Brigades Union today, with the union joining a rally outside Parliament warning that firefighters were “on the front line” as Britain has seen more wildfires already in 2019 than in any year on record.