Moment Labour MP insists Ed Miliband is a 'happy man' despite Rachel Reeves' blow to climate activists

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has given the green light to the airport's expansion plan, aimed to increase capacity by 100,000 flights a year.

Ms Alexander declared the scheme a "no-brainer" for economic growth, costing £2.2billion in a privately financed project.

Discussing the plans on GB News, Mr Curtis praised the announcement: "It's fantastic news, it's taken too long. I won't lie to you, the planning system in the UK needs to dramatically speed up from the length of time it takes us to build stuff and get planning permission signed off at the moment.

"We're talking about moving a runway 12m, and it's taken two and a half years to get us this far, and that's before the following processes that we're going to have to go through. It shows our planning system needs to speed up, but it is still fantastic news that we've managed to reach this point."

Hailing the opportunity for thousands more jobs at the airport, the Labour MP added: "This means that there are going to be more fantastic jobs for people, 14,000 jobs for people who live in the local area. Good, high-skilled, well-paying jobs like that is going to be about £1billion for the British economy.

"A lot of that going into our public services, our national health service, our education system, and also it's going to mean that there's going to be more options, more flights and cheaper flights for consumers across the country. So this is a really good day for Britain, and I'm glad we've managed to get this decision over this line and this investment coming here into the UK."

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Questioned on how Ed Miliband will respond to the plans, Martin quipped that the Energy Secretary would be "choking on his bacon sandwich, not for the first time".

Mr Curtis responded: "I think Ed Miliband, as a member of this Government, will be supportive of this Government's decision. I'm a believer in climate change, I think it's something that we need to tackle, but ultimately, you don't tackle it by saying that by just offshoring this from the UK, ultimately people are going to make decisions to fly.

"They're going to be flying from London to where they want to get to, or they're they going to fly from London, change in Amsterdam and go on elsewhere instead? And that makes absolutely no sense for the British economy. It makes no sense for the British taxpayer, and it makes no sense for combating climate change because it means more flights, longer distances"

He added: "So actually ensuring that we've got this capacity here in the UK means that there's more money coming to the Exchequer and doesn't really do much in order to to challenge those ambitious and correct climate goals that we've got."

As Martin joked that Labour could "completely upset Ed Miliband" and "do the same for North Sea oil and Shell", Mr Curtis assured Mr Miliband is a "happy person".

He concluded: "I haven't spoken to him today, but he's usually a happy man when I come across him. We know that oil and gas are going to be a big part of the electricity mix of that we need to use here in the UK, and will continue to be into the future.

"The most important thing is that we are less reliant on energy imports and we're generating more energy here at home. And in my view, the big way that we are going to get through the energy transition and actually be able to create the energy we need as we go through this AI, technical technological revolution, which is going to increase the demand for energy.

"The only way we really get through that is by dramatically increasing the amount of nuclear power here in the UK, and I think that's what we really need to be."