Yesterday, during the Queen’s Speech debate, I criticised the Government’s proposals to review air passenger duty as part of their support for FlyBe.  

While the Government should certainly be looking at a strategic intervention to support the company and its workforce, a general financial subsidy to all airlines is the wrong approach. All policy decisions should take account of the need to step up actin to tackle the climate emergency, and aviation fuel is already exempt from tax. 

We should also look, in a way that goes well beyond the ambition of this Government, at more investment in rail to enable us to take more people out of the air and on to greener modes of transport – and that’s something on which I’ll continue to campaign. 

You can see my comments in the clip below.