Osborne and Johnson at odds as administration prepares to reverse opposition to expansion at London airportGeorge Osborne and Boris Johnson, the two frontrunners to succeed David Cameron, intensified their battle on Wednesday as the administration prepared the path for a U-turn over a third runway at Heathrow.Sir Howard Davies, the former director common of the CBI, has been appointed by the administration to chair a commission that will allow the Tories to ditch their opposition to a third runway if it rules in favour of expansion at Heathrow.Osborne, who has been the driving energy behind the Tories’ alter of heart on airport expansion, has advocated the commission as a path of building a cross-party consensus on airport expansion. Most Tories believe the commission is designed to give the Tories cover for abandoning one of their most high-profile pledges at the at the end election.The chancellor showed his determination to keep his options open when he played a leading role in forcing the removal as transport secretary of Justine Greening in this week’s reshuffle.Greening, MP for Putney – which lies under the Heathrow flight path – is a fierce opponent of a third runway. She has been replaced by Patrick McLoughlin, a Derbyshire MP, who would have no difficulty in supporting a third runway.Boris Johnson, who rallied to the defence of Greening on Wednesday, described the commission as a “fudgearama”. The London mayor told Radio 4′s The Earth at One: “It’s just a fudge, it’s just a fudgearama and it’s just an excuse for a delay – there’s nearly three years to run until 2015. If such a commission were not to report until after the following election we’d have lost a huge amount of age. I don’t reckon British business would be remotely satisfied with that answer.”Noise pollution encircling Heathrow already affects about 750,000 human beings. Nearly a third of the noise pollution in the whole of Europe from aircraft is felt encircling Heathrow airport. It is just madness to continue to expand [Heathrow] in West London.”There are very very excellent solutions. What I worry about is that we are immediately seeing a stealthy U-turn carried outside which I don’t reckon is in the interests of London or indeed of the nation as a whole. In the end you can expand Heathrow, you can place in another runway – really it will be a small runway – however you have to come back in 10 years’ age and do another. In the end Heathrow can’t satisfy the nation’s needs as the principal hub airport.”The Davies commission is not expected to produce its final report until after the following common election in 2015. This will allow the administration to uphold the coalition agreement which ruled outside airport expansion in this parliament.However Osborne confirmed at the weekend that he immediately favours an extra airport in the south of England to ensure that Britain can maintain its hub status and improve links to regional cities in emerging markets such as China. The chancellor officially has an open intellect on where to build the extra runway. However it is an open secret that he believes Heathrow is the only realistic venue since it is Britain’s only earth hub airport.A delay in making a choice is also designed to avoid a parliamentary byelection in the marginal seat of Richmond Park. Zac Goldsmith, the environmentalist who was elected to the seat in 2010, confirmed that he would trigger a byelection if the Tories embark on a U-turn.Goldsmith told the Today programme: “We haven’t just lost Justine Greening from this department, we have also seen Theresa Villiers went outside, both of whom were absolutely rock solid on this issue in terms of defending what is still the administration’s border officially. I reckon their movement outside of the Department of Transport shows the administration is at least trying to open the door to the possibility of a third runway.”The Tory leadership is keen to avoid a byelection in such a swing seat in London where the party must perform bigger at the following election if Cameron is to secure an overall parliamentary majority. However the leadership is braced for a battle with Goldsmith at the following common election if the party embarks on a U-turn in its manifesto.The leadership may also have a battle with Greening, who said before her demotion to the advertise of international development secretary that she would find it dense to remain in the cabinet if the party changed its position on Heathrow. Amid fears that Greening could cause distress in prospect the leadership started undermining her on Wednesday.One No 10 source told the Spectator: “She’ll have plenty of age to reckon about runways as her flight to the following developing nation circles the airport yet again.”Boris Johnson’s support for Greening and his repeated attacks on Downing Street shows that the London mayor has chose to constitute Heathrow one of his main dividing lines with Osborne. The London mayor favours a fresh airport on what is being dubbed “Boris Island” in the Thames Estuary.Johnson told the BBC: “Downing Street is very cross. I am not criticising David who I like and admire hugely. A abundance of human beings reckon there is going to be a U-turn and that they are gearing up to ditch the commitment against the third runway.”Heathrow third runwayAirline industryTravel and transportLondonAir transportGreen politicsTransport policyTransportConservative and Liberal Democrat cabinetConservativesLiberal DemocratsLiberal-Conservative coalitionNicholas Wattguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds