Retired vicar vandalises MP’s office during protest
A RETIRED vicar vandalised an MP’s office during a climate change protest.
The Rev Mark Coleman spray painted the outside of Heywood and Middleton MP’s Chris Clarkson’s constituency office – then staged a two hour sit-in.
Inspired by a scene from the 2016 Ken Loach film ‘I, Daniel Blake,’ he wrote ‘I Mark Coleman am fed up with empty words and demand action on the climate’ and ‘Tell the Truth, love mercy, do justice’ on the office and then sat on the pavement. Mr Coleman, the former Vicar of Rochdale, says he became involved with climate protest, and later the Extinction Rebellion group, after the devastating 2015 Boxing Day floods in Rochdale.
He said: “I have lobbied my own MP, Tony Lloyd, several times about the climate crisis, but it’s this government’s repeated failure that really got to me.
“I now have a grandchild and am terrified of what we are passing on to the next generation. I’ve just had enough of the government saying they’re leading the field when a committee of MPs have found they don’t even have a plan on how to do it! It’s reckless and irresponsible.”
Mr Coleman, who was arrested in 2019 during climate protests in London, added: “The future of everything and everyone we love is at stake, we can’t afford to not do this, and if it takes doing things like this to get some action, then I’ll keep on doing it, and I think other people should do too.” Mr Coleman has also written an open letter to Mr Clarkson in which he explains the reasons for his protest and has offered to clean the paint off.
Mr Clarkson said: “The matter has been reported to the police which is the correct way to deal with criminal damage.”