AN MP has slammed the Mayor of London’s plans to fund an airport in the Thames Estuary.

Angela Smith, Labour MP for Basildon and East Thurrock, has called on Mayor of London Boris Johnson to come clean on plans to fund his proposed airport through money from the Gulf States.

Mrs Smith said: “Boris Johnson made a lot of policy statements in his speech at the Tory party conference this week, but was unusually shy about announcing progress on his proposals to cause mayhem with his man-made airport island.”

Johnson’s deputy Kit Malthouse has said: “We have had an incredible amount of interest from countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, which have signalled they would like to fund the airport.”

Mr Johnson is due to publish the first feasibility study into the airport. It is expected to show that the two artificial islands, built in four-metre deep water and holding up to six runways, will be “technically possible”.

Mrs Smith added: “This is turning from a fantasy island into a nightmare “I would urge people to protest strongly to the mayor – who has opposed expansion of London airports – against shipping the noise and environmental damage out into the estuary, where he should have no jurisdiction.”