The brinkmanship surrounding the sale of Gatwick, the second-largest UK airport, by Spain’s Ferrovial has been intensified by the apparent withdrawal of the last bidder from the contest.

A consortium led by Manchester Airport Group and Borealis, the Canadian infrastructure fund, has refused to raise its final bid of about £1.4bn, leaving a gap of at least £100m to the price being sought by BAA, the UK airports group and a subsidiary of Ferrovial.