Greenpeace defends Rishi Sunak residence protest as ‘proportionate response to a disastrous choice’

Greenpeace has defended its anti-oil protest at Rishi Sunak’s mansion as an try to attract consideration ‘to the truth that what he is doing on local weather is definitely an enormous catastrophe’.

Five individuals have been bailed by North Yorkshire Police after an illustration on the roof of the prime minister’s grade II-listed residence on Thursday.

The campaigners used ladders and climbing rope to scale the property and drape it in a black-oil material in protest towards plans to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

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Mr Sunak is currently on holiday with his wife and children however Tory and Labour MPs criticised the focusing on of his non-public residence, whereas an ex-police chief branded it a “major security breach”.

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace, mentioned the protest had been deliberate “carefully and meticulously” and wouldn’t have gone forward had the prime minister been at residence.

She informed Sky News it was a “proportionate response to a disastrous decision” by Mr Sunak to permit for additional drilling whereas the world is dealing with a local weather disaster.

“It was an empty home. We wouldn’t have done it if he was there because our intention was to draw attention to the fact that what he’s doing on climate is actually a big disaster, rather than to talk about his family or where he lives.”

Defending the act of scaling the property, Ms Hamid mentioned “protests are disruptive by nature”, and claimed there had been an outpouring of help for his or her actions in addition to criticism.

“For the amount of comments that we have received online saying we don’t agree with you, an equal amount of people are saying ‘this was brilliant, you made your point, it was peaceful, it didn’t disrupt normal people’s everyday lives, you took it to the home of the decision maker’.”

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She added that Mr Sunak had personally backed the choice to drill for extra oil “and climate change and its impacts are also felt personally”.

“I think the point that we want to make is Rishi Sunak needs to be held accountable for this decision and we need to hold politicians accountable when they make terrible decisions like these.”

North Yorkshire Police, which has come underneath fireplace following the incident, mentioned their investigation “remains ongoing”.

Police had been referred to as to the scene at round 8am, and the protest concluded at round 1pm, with 5 arrests made in complete.

A former deputy chief constable from the power, Peter Walker, informed LBC radio it was a “major breach of security”, as he referred to as for an “investigation into how this has been allowed to happen”.

Health minister Maria Caulfield refused to touch upon the prime minister’s safety preparations when chatting with Sky News earlier on Friday, however mentioned safety for MPs is “always a concern”.

Several Tory MPs condemned Greenpeace on Thursday, with deputy PM Oliver Dowden calling it a “stupid stunt” and Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons overseas affairs committee, saying household houses “should never come under assault”.

Shadow residence secretary Yvette Cooper – whose celebration opposes oil drilling growth – mentioned focusing on a politician’s house is “disgraceful and totally unacceptable”.

Number 10 stood by its coverage within the wake of the controversy, saying drilling for extra oil will increase power safety and cut back payments for shoppers.

But critics, together with climate-conscious Conservative MPs, mentioned the pledge will hinder efforts to succeed in web zero – a key, legally binding surroundings goal which requires chopping greenhouse gasoline emissions.