Mastermind: I’ll humiliate Boris at his UN climate conference
‘They will go on hunger strike’
The mastermind of the Insulate Britain group that has blocked the M25 three times this week is vowing to humiliate Boris Johnson at the UN climate conference.
Roger hallam wants hundreds of activists to end up behind bars during the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.
The co-founder of extinction Rebellion told his supporters: ‘The whole world’s going to be looking at Johnson and saying “You’re Mr Green and you’ve got 200 people in prison because they want you to insulate some houses?” It’s not going to look good.’
he laid out his masterplan for ‘sacrifice and disruption’ in a video released in July as he toured the UK looking for up to 300 activists prepared to go to jail.
‘The activists will block other motorways,’ he said yesterday. ‘They will block roads. They will go on hunthey ger strike. They will do all the things that have happened before in British history. If the Government doesn’t take a lead, then there will be massive social unrest.’
Mr hallam set up his splinter group when he caused a rift within extinction Rebellion over comments he made about the holocaust.
he told a German newspaper it ‘was just another f***ery in human history’ – but later said the remark was taken out of context from ‘three seconds’ of argument.
Sources close to Mr hallam, an organic farmer who lost his business because of severe weather, said he would ‘keep escalating’ his demonstrations to ‘grab the headlines’ from other activists.
One said: ‘I would be worried about what he’s sitting at home planning. he has supporters who would defend him to the death. All the things people criticise them for, they are glad did them. They think anything that gets Press attention is good.’
Mr hallam, 55, co-founded XR three years ago with Gail Bradbrook and Simon Bramwell, both 49.
explaining the fallout, Mr Bramwell said: ‘Roger is a very controversial figure and he can be difficult to get on with. But at the end of the day we both want the same thing and I have to admit that he is someone who gets things done.’
In his interview with the Mail, Mr hallam said: ‘Insulation isn’t the sexiest thing in the world. But it’s what most ordinary people care about.’
‘everyone knows someone in fuel poverty, and lots of old people are in houses which are damp and cold in the winter and it kills thousands of people a year, prematurely.’
he has also said he wants to ‘bring down all the regimes in the world’, starting with Britain, and believes those running society ‘should have a bullet through their heads’.
There have been allegations that he has ‘cult-like’ followers who liken him to Martin Luther King.