LONDON (Reuters) - A decision over British airport expansion has taken too long but could legitimately be delayed further due to the impact of the Volkswagen emissions scandal on air quality data, a leading candidate for London Mayor said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to say by the end of the year whether the government will back the expansion of Heathrow but is now expected to delay the politically charged decision, already 25 years in the making, possibly until after London's Mayoral election in May.
Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for Mayor whose constituency is not far from Heathrow in west London, is a long-time opponent of expanding the airport and has pledged to step down as a member of parliament if the government approves it.
In July, a government-appointed commission recommended the 23 billion pound ($35 billion) programme for a third runway at Heathrow, rejecting alternatives such as expanding Gatwick, south of London, following a three-year study.
"The decision has taken far too long to reach," Goldsmith told reporters at a parliamentary lunch, saying he did not want it to be delayed further for "political gaming" but that the case could be reviewed because of the impact on air quality.
"The VW scandal genuinely changes everything," he said. "It means that the data on which all of the Airports Commission's assumptions is based is now not only flawed, it is known to be fraudulent ... we would be doing so on the basis of evidence we know is wrong."
In September, VW admitted to U.S. regulators it had installed software in its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter settings to conceal the true emissions of 11 million cars sold worldwide.
"If the government says we are going to ask Heathrow and Gatwick to go away and to come back and prove to us that, despite all these shenanigans, their proposals can keep us within our legal limits then that is a legitimate exercise," Goldsmith said, adding that it would be an "enormous betrayal" if Cameron backs expanding Heathrow after ruling out doing so in 2009.
Earlier this month a parliamentary committee said the government should not give final approval to Heathrow expansion until it shows it accepts and will comply with environmental conditions.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and William James; editing by Stephen Addison)
