Extinction Rebellion activists GLUE their hands to pavement outside Parliament as police haul off more protesters on seventh day of climate chaos in capital after 232 arrests so far
- New tactic saw protesters blocking entrances to the Houses of Parliament by gluing themselves to cobbles
- Others chained themselves to a pink slaughterhouse truck by the Department of Health in anti-meat protest
- Activists said the government had done little to reach its own ‘inadequate targets’ so they had to take action
Advertisement
Extinction Rebellion activists glued themselves to the ground to block entrances to Parliament today in a dramatic escalation of their two-week campaign of disruption.
Protesters said they ‘jumped the barriers and ran past armed police to glue (themselves) on to the floor outside the House of Lords’.
The tactic, a staple of previous XR demonstrations, was accompanied by scores of others staging a sit-in elsewhere around the perimeter of the parliamentary estate, including at the Carriage Gates.
A separate protest, carried out by XR ally Animal Rebellion, saw activists locked on top of a pink slaughterhouse truck parked sideways across nearby Victoria Street.
The campaigners said they are demanding ‘a plant-based food system as a means to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis and reduce the risk of future pandemics’. They have previously used fake blood in their demonstrations.
Police arrested another 72 Extinction Rebellion activists yesterday as they swooped on demonstrators lying in the road to block Boris Johnson’s route to Prime Ministers’ Questions yesterday.
It brings the total number of eco-warriors detained to 232 since they kick-started their fortnight of chaos in the capital on Friday following a coronavirus recess.
Extinction Rebellion protesters holding a sign reading ‘we act in peace’ glued themselves to the cobbles outside an entrance to Parliament today
A separate protest, carried out by XR ally Animal Rebellion, saw activists locked on top of a pink slaughterhouse truck parked sideways across nearby Victoria Street
Police officers haul away an activist who had been blocking the road outside the Department of Health this morning
A warning on a protester’s hand warning it had been glued to the ground (left) and a woman being hauled away by police
A protester is pulled up from the ground by police in London after attempting to block a road during protests this morning
An activist wearing a face mask is hauled away by officers after a protest on Victoria Street, where the Department of Health is located
The arrests were made for a range of offences including breaching Public Order conditions, obstructing the highway, obstructing police and assault on an emergency worker.
XR spokesperson Tamsin Omand, 35, from London, said that protesters wanted the Prime Minister to see and hear their action.
‘The climate and ecological emergency has to be the absolute priority – how we are going to transform society into one that is fit for the crises we are already experiencing and the ones coming down the road,’ she said.
‘We are seeing a Parliament that has failed on every count – Boris Johnson wasn’t even around for the first Cobras (of the coronavirus pandemic), so if that is the attitude he is going to take to the climate and ecological emergency we are in dire straits.
‘Disruption is a core tenet of how XR works and how we have managed to achieve so much in a short period of time.
‘We have been outside Downing Street blocking his route on both sides and of course he’s encountering us here in the square – I think we are impossible to ignore.’
Police remove a protester from Victoria Street in London, in a scene that will be familiar to anyone who has followed the protests this week
Police officers talk to a protester carrying a cardboard placard reading ‘outlaw profit by ecocide’ on Victoria Street today
Another group of protesters staging a sit down protest at the Carriage Gates entrance to the Houses of Parliament
Specialist police remove protesters who had chained themselves to the top of a slaughterhouse truck outside the Department of Health
The Met confirmed that 72 people had been arrested as of 5pm on Wednesday, the majority for breaching conditions imposed on the Parliament Square demonstration
XR wants the Government to declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emission to net zero by 2025, and establish a ‘citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice’