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For anti-Heathrow Airport campaigners, it may just prove the final insult.

First Boris Johnson fled the country to avoid voting against its £14bn third runway.

Now he's touched back down in Britain - at none other than Heathrow itself.

The suited Foreign Secretary was spotted clutching an upside-down red ministerial folder and wheeling a suitcase outside the newly-built Terminal 5 this morning.

He was later seen flustered and checking his watch on the way to a 9.30am meeting of the Cabinet in Downing Street.

And the Foreign Secretary was taunted by MPs as he turned up to face the music in the House of Commons - without a single Cabinet colleague by his side.

(Image: David Dyson) (Image: David Dyson)

Labour MP Paul Sweeney joked: "The Foreign Secretary's looking rather sprightly this morning after his overnight flight, I hope the jet lag wasn't too severe."

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry added: "Four years ago he was asked the biggest lesson he had learned from his supposed hero Winston Churchill.

"His answer was 'never give in'. For some reason Churchill didn't add 'unless you can catch a plane to Kabul'!"

He arrived hours after MPs voted 415-119 to demolish almost 1,000 west London homes and reroute the M25 to expand Britain's busiest hub.

A legal action to stop the third runway is now being launched by local councils and Sadiq Khan - Mr Johnson's successor as Mayor of London.

(Image: REUTERS)

(Image: REUTERS)

The Labour mayor, Greenpeace, and boroughs of Wandsworth, Richmond, Hillingdon and Hammersmith & Fulham are preparing a judicial review.

One expert claimed the challenge could delay the runway's 2026 opening date by more than two years.

Mr Johnson, who once vowed to lay down in front of the bulldozers, was saved from having to resign from the government by not taking part in last night's vote.

He went on a one-day trip to see Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister. The BBC reported Britain is readying a deal to send 440 troops to the region to help train Afghan security forces.

He was due to face MPs in the Commons from 11.30am today.

Mr Johnson's fellow Heathrow opponents made a point of using other airports to travel.

Greg Hands, who resigned as a trade minister to be one of eight Tory rebels, tweeted pointedly: "Great to arrive back in the UK at Luton Airport... to vote against Heathrow expansion tomorrow.

"I wouldn’t want to be abroad for either of those."

(Image: REX/Shutterstock) (Image: @mfa_afghanistan/Twitter)

It may well be that the Foreign Secretary was a victim of circumstance - as his flights are likely to have been arranged by civil servants.

John Stewart, chairman of grassroots anti-expansion group HACAN, said: "You wonder if Boris was landing at Heathrow to see if he could spot any bulldozers... But of course, he was a day late."

Mr Stewart said he believed the Cabinet minister will continue to make the case against expanding the airport.

But he added: "He's been good news for our campaign over the years and it would be nice if we could have seen him speaking in his usual inimitable style in the Commons."