Kemi Badenoch posed with a giant pair of scissors at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open a new domestic arrivals building at London Stansted Airport.
The Conservative leader wielded the more than two-foot long snippers together with airport managing director Gareth Powell in a photo opportunity on Friday.
She then swapped the blunt item for a regular sized pair of scissors to actually cut the ribbon tied between two towers of balloons, raising her hands in celebration afterwards.
Work on a £1.1 billion transformation at Stansted, the fourth largest airport in the UK, will continue over the next three to four years.
Construction of the new domestic arrivals building was part of the initial work.
The transformation works will include a £600 million extension to the main terminal, increasing its size by 40%.
During her visit, Mrs Badenoch met staff from the operations ground team near the runway, and security and customer services staff inside the new building.
She told staff the airport, which is within her North West Essex constituency, was “critical” to the community and beyond, and important for employment and the economy.
“As the MP I tend to get the complaints (about the airport)… a lot of people do just think about it in terms of the impact on their life,” she said.
“But actually I have to balance that with all of the positive benefits that it’s having elsewhere.
“And the people who get a positive thing from the airport rarely say anything at all.
“Those people who work there, use it for business, for holidays, all of those – the jobs that it creates – rarely talk about the airport.
“People who have a negative experience of it are very vocal and that can sometimes influence the perception of the airport.
“So as the MP I have to make sure I stay very balanced.
“I support people when they have issues with noise, night flights and traffic congestion.
“But I always tell the story of how when Covid hit and so many people lost their jobs, all of those people turned up in my surgeries.
“It really showed just how critical the airport was, how important it was for the local community and well beyond.”
