Ministers blacklist Greenpeace over Rishi home stunt
With five suspects bailed after rooftop protest...
GREENPEACE has been blacklisted by the Government after its roof- top stunt at Rishi Sunak’s family home.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey ordered all links to be immediately severed with the campaign group after its members climbed on top of the Prime Minister’s mansion in North Yorkshire.
Greenpeace will no longer be able to take part in meetings with ministers or officials or be invited to other Whitehall engagements.
The charity’s actions led to calls for an urgent review of the PM’s protection plans and of how protesters were able to access the Sunaks’ £2million Grade II-listed manor house.
With no police or security guards on site and apparently no electronic surveillance system, the eco activists walked through an unlocked gate and strolled into the grounds.
The group then draped the Georgian mansion in the village of Kirby Sigston with an oil-black fabric to protest against plans to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.
Five suspects were arrested but they have been released on conditional bail, a North Yorkshire Police spokesman said yesterday.
The force, which has come under fire following the incident which took place on Thursday after Mr Sunak and his family had jetted off on holiday to California, said an investigation is ongoing.
Downing Street refused to comment on the PM’s security arrangements and declined to say whether a review had been launched.
Former home secretary Priti Patel has urged her successor Suella Braverman to launch an inquiry into the breach.
Greenpeace defended its anti-oil protest with co-executive director Areeba Hamid claiming it was a ‘proportionate response to a disastrous decision’ by Mr Sunak to allow further drilling.
She said the incident had been planned ‘carefully and meticulously’ and would not have gone ahead if the PM had been at home.
Reacting to the Government
blacklisting, her colleague Will McCallum said: ‘This isn’t about the Government engaging with Greenpeace, it’s about them engaging with the world around them. The planet is on fire and Rishi Sunak is acting like nothing’s happening.’
Yesterday, health minister Maria Caulfield refused to comment on the Prime Minister’s security arrangements.
But she said: ‘We’re coming up in October to two years since our good colleague Sir David Amess was murdered, so yes, security around MPs is always a concern.’
Sir David was stabbed at a constituency surgery in Leighon-Sea, Essex, in what prosecutors described as a ‘horrific act of terrorism’.