Presumably when she was a local MP in the opposition party trying to show solidarity with people in her constituency. However just look at last weeks DP World issue where the Government quickly distanced themselves from the comments, she’s in a position now where investment programs have to be supported even if it goes against their principles - this will be one of (hopefully) many.
LBA has almost always been shunned by the politicians and local public sector leaders, they think it should be elsewhere. It takes someone to pull £1bn of investment to actually realise that they haven’t the commercial awareness to make logical decisions on things such as airport developments. Other local airports are a prime example of this.