He did however mention about Gatwick longhaul having 'some feed from shorthaul' which could be increased if longhaul were to be expanded and this in turn would benefit the shorthaul routes to an extent. Although BA have been downsizing Gatwick shorthaul they seemed to have slowed down significantly recently and the 20-22 based shorthaul aircraft suggest that there is a market for BA on shorter routes and they prehaps need to look into markets where their more upmarket brand and product could help them to gain their own part of a market.
On a similar topic I could possibly see IAG's 'other' airlines Iberia possibly starting a LGW-MAD route fairly soon to make the most of Iberia's longhaul routes. Also worth considering that Madrid form Gatwick grew significantly last year and with Ryanair's pullout there should be a reasonable gap in the market. Either that or Air Europa and the Orange will add an extra flight or two!
However the commitment to Gatwick by IAG is good to hear of regardless and I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.