IT’S CLASS WAR!

Thousands of pupils walk out of school in climate protest — but was their ‘strike’ hijacked by Left?

THOUSANDS of pupils walked out of classes yesterday for a ‘strike’ over climate change which caused chaos up and down the country.

Children of all ages, some as young as four, left classrooms in 60 towns and cities to join mass demonstrations demanding action on the environment.

Controversially, energy minister Claire Perry praised the mass walk-out by pupils – putting her at odds with Theresa May, who implored children not to skip school.

Critics had asked why the children could not protest in their own time, but Mrs Perry said she was ‘incredibly proud’ of the truanting youngsters and even admitted she ‘would be out there too’ had she been 40 years younger.

In many areas the protests were hijacked by hard-Left militants, who led anti-Tory chants and handed out Socialist Workers Party placards.

In London, mounted police had to be called in as youngsters blocked Westminster Bridge, let off smoke flares and climbed on statues of political heroes including Winston Churchill outside Parliament.

Others supporting the strike included a string of Labour MPs. Jeremy Corbyn said it was ‘inspiring to see them making their voice heard’.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband joined the London protest with his nine-year-old son Daniel, while Lib Dem MP Layla Moran addressed a rally in Oxford and Green MP Caroline Lucas spoke to crowds in Brighton.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and London Mayor Sadiq Khan also sent messages of support to the children. The walkout was organised by the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement, which spread messages on social media calling on children to leave lessons at 11am for a ‘strike’.

Many parents enthusiastically joined in, arriving at schools to pick up their children and take them on protests with placards.

Some headteachers gave their tacit approval, but others threatened detentions and £60 fines to anyone taking part.

Crowds turned up to demonstrations in areas including London, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford, Brighton, Exeter, Truro and Canterbury.

Campaigners demanded the Government make tackling climate change more of a priority, and said the voting age should be lowered to 16 to give youngsters more of a say.

In Brighton around 1,000 pupils bunked off from school to join a march, bringing traffic to a standstill. Among them were hard-Left militants who chanted ‘Blue out, Greens in’ and ‘**** the Tories’.

Mother Yvonne Fuller, who took her children Bruce, ten, and Floss, nine, to the protest, said: ‘Even though it is not allowed to take your kids out of school we hope it will start a bigger conversation about the environment. If you see something that is not right you can do something to change it.’

In Cambridge crowds gathered chanting ‘Hey ho, fossil fuels have got to go’, holding placards saying ‘Take back control of our future’ and ‘We have no planet B’. Several times, chants of ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ broke out from the crowd.

Rachel Vanmarle, 34, took her son Clarence, eight, daughter Dotty, six, Pablo, aged two, and nine-month-old Sebastian. She said: ‘I’ve come to teach the children how to have a voice, because we made this mess and we’re going to have to change it.’

In Oxford 17-year-old Sebastian Culpepper, from St Clare’s School,

‘Some heads gave tacit approval’

said: ‘We need action right now, it can’t go on any longer or there will be irreversible consequences for the planet. We are the generation that will have to deal with it.’

Ian McKendrick, a Socialist Workers Party member, was at the centre of a crowd of children chanting ‘Save our Planet’.

Fellow party members circulated the Socialist Worker newspaper, and leaflets showing Karl Marx and saying ‘kick out the Tories’.

The SWP was also out in Parliament Square in London, handing out placards calling for ‘one socialist revolution’ and ‘system change not climate change’.

Masses of teenagers turned up for the march in the capital, and while most were restrained, some went to extreme lengths. One group took over an open-top tourist bus, conducting their protest by waving banners from the top deck.

Others sat on the roads around Parliament and chanted ‘we’re not moving’ as they created a human blockade, forcing bus drivers to abandon their vehicles as they tried to negotiate with them.

Mounted police were deployed to move pupils off roads after they blocked Westminster Bridge for several hours. Police attempting to move a group of 100 children sitting on the road were met with chants of: ‘We can’t hear you.’

When asked if she was worried about being arrested, one 14-yearold girl said: ‘We don’t care because this is our future and not theirs.’

But one lorry driver who was stuck in the gridlock for three hours

said: ‘ They say my emissions are ruining the world – but how do they think they get deliveries? Everything they’ve got, iPhones, clothes and even food, came from a truck like mine. They have zero perspective.’

Teenagers waving Socialist Worker Party placards climbed on top of statues of former prime ministers David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Youngsters in black masks swarmed around a fuel truck in Whitehall, screaming ‘shame on you’ and making rude gestures at the driver.

Two pupils brandishing a bottle of champagne climbed on to the roof of a number 11 bus to Fulham Broadway. Some were seen drinking alcohol from bottles disguised by paper bags. Others ripped up homemade signs, chanting ‘**** Theresa May’.

Scotland Yard said it had arrested two teenagers, one on a public order offence and one for obstructing a highway. Other youngsters were led away in handcuffs.

Mrs Perry told Radio 4’s Today programme before the protest: ‘I suspect if this was happening 40 years ago, I would be out there too.

‘I’m incredibly proud of the young people in the UK who are highly educated about this issue, the schools have done an amazing job through the curriculum.

‘They feel very strongly – quite rightly – that we do need to take action because it’s their generation that will bear the consequences.’

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘Everybody wants young people to be engaged in the issues that affect them. But it is important to emphasise that disruption increases teachers’ workloads and wastes lesson time.’

Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the Commons, said more bluntly on Twitter: ‘It’s called truancy, not a strike.’ Campaigners plan a second round of strikes on March 15.