Nigel Rudd has accused ministers of putting policies before the economy by delaying the decision over whether to build a third runway.

He said opponents of a third runway were holding the country “to ransom”, and questioned the suitability of Goldsmith to stand as the Conservative candidate in the mayoral elections, The Telegraph reported.

“Politics trumps economics,” he said of the Government delay to a decision on airport expansion until the summer. “It’s probably great politics but it’s terrible economics.”

Rudd, who will be stepping down next September added that he believed the construction of a third runway would eventually go ahead but that he was uncertain as to whether it would happen in the summer.

Goldsmith has threatened to quit as an MP in that area if a third runway was given the go-ahead, which would cause embarrassment to David Cameron.

“The support we have from the Scots, from Wales, from Bristol, from the West Country and Yorkshire tells you that people are desperate to have this connectivity, and we’re being held to ransom by Zac Goldsmith and a few MPs who have interests in their constituencies that they feel they’ve got to represent,” Rudd said.

“I fail to understand how they’ve selected Zac Goldsmith as a mayoral candidate because he has no academic achievement,” he added. “He was left money by his daddy, he’s never had a job other than a job given to him by his uncle, so what qualification has he got to do anything?”

A spokesperson for Zac Goldsmith said he was “already delivering for Londoners as a candidate for Mayor of London” after securing a review of airport expansion plans “after years of effective campaigning”, The Telegraph said.