Boris Johnson has defended using planes to get around the UK during the election campaign under mounting criticism from climate campaigners.

Yesterday the prime minister took a 30 minute flight from Doncaster to Teesside to avoid going by road in a journey that would have taken around two hours.

But Mr Johnson argued the flight’s carbon contribution had been offset and argued there is no need to ban aviation despite the planet facing a climate crisis.

Instead, he said he expected British firms to help develop planes that produce fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

The Tory leader visited Grimsby Fish Market on Monday and travelled by road to Robin Hood Airport, near Doncaster, to board a propeller plane to Teesside International, near Darlington.

The plane with 70 seats appeared ‘at least two-thirds full’ according to reporters at the scene.

Mr Johnson then took his campaign battle bus to Washington, near Sunderland, where he gave a speech to factory workers.

The PM later returned to Teesside before flying to Birmingham Airport, which again took around 30 minutes, before he was taken by bus to a shoe warehouse near Gloucester.

Mr Johnson started his campaign using a plane he dubbed ‘Con Air’ to travel to north-east England, Scotland and Northern Ireland before returning to the East Midlands, in one day.

Asked about criticism of him using short-haul flights for his campaigning, given his party’s green agenda, Mr Johnson told reporters: ‘The best way I can respond is by saying we’re offsetting the carbon contribution of this flight.

‘One day, when we get Brexit done and we drive the technological revolution this country is capable of, we will have not quite Prius aeroplanes but planes that produce much less CO2 and that’s the world we should work for.’

Mr Johnson said the future has to involve low-carbon planes, adding: ‘I don’t think we should ban aviation, people need to get around, and they can offset it and also work for a world, which is what we’re going for, where we’ve improved engine efficiency so much that flying by plane is no longer as damaging to the atmosphere as it is at the moment.’

He said: ‘We’re going through now an incredible revolution in battery technology. We will have planes that produce much less carbon.

‘But in the meantime I’m going to humbly accept your criticism and point out we’re offsetting our carbon footprint.’

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