Tory MP compared to eco protesters

JEREMY CORBYN has branded Tory MP Lee Rowley one of the “nose-ringed, unco-operative crusties” – a term used by Boris Johnson to describe Extinction Rebellion protesters - over views he expressed about fracking during last year’s Conservative Party conference.

Speaking in the Commons today following the Queen’s Speech, Mr Corbyn turned to North East Derbyshire MP Mr Rowley, inset, as one of those who had proposed the loyal address.

Mr Corbyn said: “Today, the Honourable member is again in danger of finding himself upbraided by the Prime Minister. This time as a member of the ‘nose-ringed, unco-operative crusties’. Indeed, he took his fight against fracking into the lion’s den at the 2018 Tory Party conference and predicted that his party’s support for fracking could see them lose seats.”

The Yorkshire Post reported last year how Mr Rowley told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference the Government’s backing of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is a “barnacle that needs to be removed from the Conservative boat as quickly as possible”, in a nod to Tory election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby.

Mr Rowley, a former oil and gas analyst, said at the time: “At the moment the lion has not roared on fracking because we have dealt with less than a dozen applications in this country for the last eight years. If we’re to do it at scale, if we’re to achieve whatever objective the Government is setting, we will have to have hundreds in Derbyshire.”

He has since spoken out against fracking on multiple occasions and proposed a law to limit the ability of fracking to create earthquakes.