A MA­JOR Con­ser­va­tive think tank to­day called on the Govern­ment to re­ject Heathrow ex­pan­sion in favour of the so-called Boris Is­land air­port plan for the Thames Es­tu­ary.

The re­port, seen by the Even­ing Stan­dard, could gal­vanise re­newed sup­port among Tory MPs for Boris John­son’s pro­posal, which the Air­ports Com­mis­sion re­jected last month when it backed a new run­way at Heathrow.

Cen­tre-right think tank Bow Group pub­lished the re­port by Wind­sor MP Adam Afriyie, which pours scorn on ex­tend­ing Heathrow, say­ing: “Its noise af­fects al­most four times more peo­ple than any other air­port in Europe.”

Mr Afriyie is famed for his ru­moured lead­er­ship chal­lenge to David Cameron in 2013. His con­stituency would be af­fected by ex­tra noise at Heathrow. He says a Thames Es­tu­ary site would af­fect 30,000 peo­ple, com­pared with one mil­lion at Heathrow, and would be “de­signed for 21st-cen­tury travel”.

Back­ing the re­port, Bow Group re­search sec­re­tary Peter Smith said: “Adam Afriyie has com­pre­hen­sively ex­plained why the Govern­ment should re­ject the Heathrow op­tion in favour of de­vel­op­ing de­tailed pro­pos­als for a new air­port that is fit for the fu­ture, not the piece­meal ex­pan­sion of one ham­strung by the past.” 

The think tank’s chair­man, Ben Har­ris-Quin­ney, added: “We need a smart phone-era air­port that will make Lon­don the air hub of the world again.”

Other Tory MPs in favour of Boris Is­land in­clude Bernard Jenkin, Jus­tine Green­ing, Angie Bray, Mark Field and Richard Ot­t­away.