Britain’s opposition Conservatives will say they’ll “do whatever it takes” to build a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport after Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to support the planned expansion.

Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Andrew Griffith will use a speech at his party’s annual conference to say that the Tories are “all in” for economic growth, according to an emailed press release from the party. “Countries on the rise have the best infrastructure and connectivity to the world, but our national hub airport is being held back,” Griffith will say.

Burnham, who’s made devolving decision-making out of Whitehall a core part of his agenda, cast doubt on the project backed by his predecessor Keir Starmer when he said last weekend that it was a matter for Londoners whether the new runway goes ahead. Many residents in the capital oppose the airport’s expansion, but Starmer argued it was essential for economic growth, a view backed by the Tories.

The Conservatives are trying to use their convention in Birmingham to reestablish themselves as the dominant party on the right of British politics, after ceding ground in polls to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK since 2024’s election defeat. In the conviction politics espoused by Burnham, some in the party sense an opening.

“Burnham is a vastly more competent politician than Keir Starmer, not least because he has a sense of where he wants to go, even if it’s ill defined and wrong,” said Jesse Norman, shadow leader of the House of Commons, who was speaking at a fringe event in Birmingham. For many of the Tories assembled, that makes Burnham’s Labour Party a clearer opponent.

The Tories will pitch themselves as the party of economic growth, business and sound money after a speech by Burnham at Labour’s own convention set a different long-term direction for the government by calling for an end to Britain’s pensions triple lock and suggesting it could rejoin the European Union.

Griffith will also use his speech to set out a plan to reduce red tape on construction that the party says should reduce the price of a new house.

On Sunday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used a round of pre-conference interviews to propose abolishing inheritance tax and scrapping a cliff edge that means higher earners lose out on state-provided childcare once one parent earns above £100,000 ($132,000) a year.

Richard Fuller, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said Sunday that Britain faced urgent economic dangers: “The barrels of gunpowder have already been rolled into the cellar and the air is full of embers,” he said.

The question agitating pollsters is whether voters have forgiven the Conservatives for their part in it, after the end of their 14 years in power was precipitated by former Prime Minister’s Liz Truss’s disastrous mini budget. The UK still pays a premium over peers for its sovereign debt, which the government spends one in every 10 pounds servicing.

“History suggests that a party that has presided over a financial crash finds it very very difficult to recover within one Parliament,” said pollster John Curtice, speaking at the same Demos event as Norman. He said the Conservatives were ahead of other parties when voters are asked who they trust to manage the economy, but a plurality still say no party.

Some senior Tories expect Griffith will be replaced as shadow chancellor by Claire Coutinho, the shadow business secretary, before the next election, Bloomberg has earlier reported.