Ahead of today’s House of Commons vote on the Heathrow third runway issue, CBI Director General Carolyn Fairbairn has said that the new runway is critical to the UK economy on basis that the “UK must be open for business, and to the world,” or risk being left behind.

She warned against further delay and “our competitors – who have been busy building their own aviation capacity and trade relationships – will pull further ahead.”

Fairbairn was speaking ahead of today’s parliamentary on the National Policy Statement for Heathrow expansion. She explained that new air routes will help create billions of pounds in growth, tens of thousands of UK jobs and help the economy by enabling “entrepreneurs to export to the booming growth markets of the world.”

“Time is up on indecision and delay on the new runway at Heathrow,” said Fairbairn, “we have reached the day when Parliament needs to say yes.”

While Boris Johnson has indicated he is unlikely to resign over the issue despite being so vociferous against it, the international minister Greg Hands did have the nerve to jump from government saying that he was doing so to vote against the runway.

Other organisations have pointed out that this would effectively lead to the UK ripping up the Paris Accord on climate change, something that many politicians have supported, as have thousands of members of the public.