Storm in a peacup!
Eco rebels in restaurant ‘dirty protest’ and vegetable punch-up
CLIMATE activists smeared faeces on restaurant walls and targeted staff with abuse when they sold out of crushed pea salad, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Protesters even tackled a member of staff when she tried to clean up the human waste at a branch of the healthy- eating chain Leon in Westminster duri ng the Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in October.
Workers also reported how they battled to stop an eco-activist clambering over the counter at the Strand branch when she became enraged that the last portion of crushed pea salad had been taken by a customer in front of her. The incidents emerged after thousands of demonstrators brought Central London to a standstill for a week in October.
Many eco-protesters opted to camp outside branches of Leon so they could use the bathrooms, staff said.
On October 6, managers at the Horseferry Road branch, close to the Department for Transport building targeted by protesters, opened the doors to find a queue for the toilet stretching down the street.
Workers at the branch ‘had to deal with faeces smeared all over the walls and doors of the toilets’, according to a complaint sent by Leon chiefs to Extinction Rebellion.
They added: ‘Used sanitary products were stuck to the walls and doors.’
An internal briefing, seen by this newspaper, records that when staff members tried to clean the sickening mess, a manager named as Erika was tackled by an activist, leaving her bruised and shaken.
Another manager also reported that locks to the bathrooms had been tampered with to allow activists to continue using them. To add to the mayhem, he said, police swooped on the restaurant to arrest protesters.
Days later, on October 10, a woman in her mid- 40s was asked to leave the Strand branch after she started screaming abuse because they had sold out of crushed pea salad. On the same day, another customer was confronted by a protester who took issue with the Canada Goose jacket he was wearing, claiming the company was responsible for animal cruelty.
A Twitter user wrote: ‘Son pops in to get some food in Leon Strand. He’s verbally attacked, humiliated by climate emergency protesters for wearing a Canada Goose jacket.’
A spokesman for Leon said: ‘We do not welcome the sort of treatment our team and guests were subjected to in two of our restaurants. Both restaurants were closed after the incidents and all team members have been supported throughout.’
Extinction Rebellion said: ‘The incident was clearly horrible and we’re sorry the staff were put in this position. This is not indicative of the nature of the movement and our principles and values.’