Annoying people is part of change, insists Greta

GRETA Thunberg voiced support for the tactics of roadblocking group Insulate Britain yesterday, saying sometimes you have to ‘p*** people off’ to protect the environment.

The Swedish activist also attacked Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Budget and said policies such as cuts to air passenger duty show ‘climate action is not really [Britain’s] priority’.

As representatives of 200 nations gather in Glasgow to thrash out a deal to try to limit global warming to 1.5C, Miss Thunberg, 18, who began the school strike climate change protests, was asked on the Andrew Marr Show whether ‘blocking roads’ was justified. She said: ‘To make clear, as long as no-one gets hurt... then I think sometimes you need to anger some people.

‘Like, for instance, the school strike movement would never have become so big if there wasn’t friction, if some people didn’t get p ***** off.’

She said she speaks to activists in countries like China where they do not have the same rights, and added: ‘It makes you just feel so grateful that we are actually able to protest and that just puts more responsibility on us who actually have the right to protest, to use that right.’

Asked about Mr Sunak’s policy in the Budget of cutting air passenger duty by 50 per cent on internal flights, she added: ‘When you see a pattern of these policies, that all the time are avoiding taking real action, then I think you can draw conclusions from that pattern. That climate action is not really our main priority right now.’

She criticised China for being ‘out of touch’ on the climate crisis but warned there will always be other countries to blame for not doing enough and urged the world to work together.