Greenpeace activists plead Not Guilty to criminal damage of PM’s house

Today four Greenpeace activists have entered Not Guilty pleas to criminal damage charges, which were pressed following a protest covering the Prime Minister’s Yorkshire mansion in black fabric while the PM and his family were in California last summer.

The news comes as the widely condemned Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill will have its second reading in the House of Lords next week. The Bill is the piece of legislation by which Sunak hopes to push his dangerous mass expansion of North Sea oil and gas drilling through Parliament, the very policy that the peaceful protest at Sunak’s mansion last year was warning against.

Commenting, Greenpeace UK Climate Campaigner, Mel Evans, said:

“This protest took place at Sunak’s house in his Yorkshire constituency, when it was widely reported in the national news that the PM and his family were abroad, holidaying in California.

“England has just experienced our wettest eighteen months on record, hundreds of UK homes and farms have been hit by floods and millions spent another winter in fuel poverty while the prime minister continues to support oil and gas expansion, fueling extreme weather and doing nothing to lower energy bills. The government can try to silence protest, but not the weather, and the damage and cost will keep racking up so long as we stick to the same self-destructive policies.”