SIOBHAN Benita has become the first mayoral candidate to publicly declare her support for a third runway at Heathrow.

The independent candidate in the upcoming elections for London Mayor this week claimed a new landing strip would help create thousands of jobs in west London.

She called for residents to ‘get behind’ the campaign for a third runway as it was in their ‘own best interests’.

“London and its population would be best served with another runway at Heathrow," she said. "We are stuck with the location of Heathrow whether we like it or not – now is the time to invest in it and bring more connections and greater prosperity to London as result. We don’t want London lagging behind the rest of Europe,”

London Mayor Boris Johnson is against a third runway and has instead backed plans for a new Thames Estuary airport - dubbed ‘Boris Island’.

His main rivals Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick have both spoken out against plans for a third runway, to which the three main parties are all opposed.

BAA claimed recently it was not actively campaigning for a third runway at the airport but had not ruled out the possibility.

The Government is expected to publish later this month the first draft of its aviation white paper setting out the future of air travel.