‘Spoilt extremists’ who scaled Rishi Sunak’s £2m family home arrested

Sky News: Greenpeace protest at Rishi Sunak's home

Four Greenpeace protesters who scaled Rishi Sunak’s family home have been arrested.

The activists staged an hours-long demonstration against new oil and gas licences on the roof of the Prime Minister’s grade II listed manor house in North Yorkshire this morning.

The campaigners climbed on the roof of Mr Sunak’s constituency residence and draped it in black material at around 8am.

They ended the stunt at around 1.15pm and were being spoken to by officers before being loaded into the back of police vans.

The protest against the PM’s decision to grant more than 100 new licences for fossil fuel extraction in the North Sea came while he was on a family holiday in California.

But the group came under fire for targeting Mr Sunak’s private home.

Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith said: “MPs and their families have enough to worry about with their security without extremist groups and their spoilt activists pulling stunts like this at their homes to promote their unrealistic, extravagant demands and student union-level politics.”

Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Philip Evans said: “Our activists have come down, having delivered their message to the Prime Minister who’s holidaying 5,000 miles away. It’s time for Sunak to decide which side he is on – Big Oil’s profits or our future on a habitable planet?

“By ignoring the stark warnings of his own advisors, energy experts and the UN, and committing to a climate-wrecking drilling frenzy in the North Sea, the Prime Minister is pouring fuel on the wildfires, floods and unprecedented heat waves that are ruining lives and livelihoods right around the world.

“The buck stops with him, and he must take sole responsibility for the devastation he is unleashing.”

He added: “Our action today was entirely peaceful and we were diligent in ensuring that no one was home and that no damage would be done to the property. We have cooperated fully with the police and the activists have been taken into custody.

“We felt it was important to take this message directly to the Prime Minister’s doorstep today, since it is Sunak himself that has signed off on the decision to grant these licences and it is Sunak who holds the power to reverse this decision.

“So we ask the Prime Minister once more – Rishi Sunak, whose side are you on – Big Oil’s profits or our future?”

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