Insulate Britain block Parliament Square on their 19th day of action

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Insulate Britain eco zealots today blocked an insulation lorry and forced it to turn around as they took their road demonstrations to Westminster by sitting down in Parliament Square. 

Some 62 protesters from the group sat on the road near the London Underground station from 9am and glued themselves to it – bringing most traffic to a halt, although cyclists could still make their way past them.

The green truck from Northampton-based insulation company CCF was blocked this morning, as it was revealed Insulate Britain’s protests have already cost Scotland Yard nearly £2million in the first four weeks.

Today, the activists sat on the ground while holding banners on the south east of Parliament Square, on Bridge Street, and at the Peers’ entrance to the Houses of Parliament. Around 30 glued themselves to the road.

Conservative MP Dehenna Davison, for Bishop Auckland in County Durham, tweeted a photo of her next to the group, saying: ‘I just went to chat to some of the Insulate Britain protestors who are blocking Westminster Bridge and the route to St Thomas’ Hospital. Don’t worry, folks. They’re “letting” ambulances take a different route…’

The environmental campaigners have now blocked roads on 19 days since September 13, causing misery for drivers stuck in long queues on the M25 around London and further afield in Dover, Manchester and Birmingham.

So far, 161 people have been involved in the roadblock campaign and there have been 801 arrests. Up to 32 of its activists now face up to two years in prison for breaching a court injunction by blocking traffic on motorways.

Insulate Britain issued pictures of many of them yesterday, and said nine have already been summoned to the High Court in London on November 16 for breaching the National Highways injunction by disrupting the M25. 

It comes two days after Insulate Britain took their protests nationwide, on the M56 near Manchester Airport and the A4400 in central Birmingham, after police stopped them getting onto an M25 junction near South Mimms in Hertfordshire. Today, some of the same faces spotted in Manchester and Hertfordshire were at Westminster.  

The Extinction Rebellion offshoot group said they face a contempt of court hearing and if found to be in breach of the court order could be subject to unlimited fines, seizure of assets and jail sentences of up to two years.

A further 23 activists, who have also defied one or more of the four injunctions, are expected to be summoned to court in the coming days. They were effectively banned from all major roads in England on Monday last week.

It comes as figures obtained by LBC revealed policing Insulate Britain protests on roads around London cost the Metropolitan Police £1,961,616.44 in the first four weeks of their protests from September 13 to October 10.

The force said ‘opportunity costs’ for police staff and officers amounted to more than £1.7million, ‘fleet’ costs for cars and vehicles came in at £22,000 and paying for officers to work overtime lost the force £217,000.

Andy Trotter, former deputy assistant commissioner at the Met and former chief constable of the British Transport Police, said it was a ‘shocking use of public money that could easily have been used for something better’. 

An Insulate Britain spokesman said today: ‘Insulate Britain has been one of the most successful campaigns in history: our name recognition went from zero to 77 per cent of the public in three weeks.

‘We have attracted enormous media interest and we have started thousands of conversations, in the press, on social media and in homes up and down the country. 

‘Importantly, we have exposed the government’s refusal to act on home insulation as cowardly and vindictive and their refusal to protect our country and our children from the climate crisis as genocidal and treasonous.’

They added: ‘What we say to the bystanders who look on in fear and denial is this: look at what we did. A hundred people captured the country’s attention for weeks. Think what 1,000 people can achieve. 

‘Come and join us and we will change the tide of history. What more meaningful thing can you do with your lives, at this time when everyone and everything you love is in mortal danger?’ 

On Wednesday, police failed to arrest Insulate Britain activists blocking a busy road near a hospital, instead telling them that they did not ‘want to put good people in a cell’.

West Midlands Police asked the group of protesters to leave the A400 on Wednesday morning, giving them ‘another ten minutes’ on the road near Birmingham Children’s Hospital before the group ‘dispersed peacefully’.

In a video, a constable could be seen asking them to move as nearby ‘you’ve got the children’s hospital, you’ve got people that are dying, kids that are dying, people going for cancer therapies’.

But despite the force’s softly-softly approach, Insulate Britain returned a few hours later to the streets of central Birmingham, causing disruption as they clogged up the junction once more.

The activists were once again ‘spoken to’ by officers, before agreeing to leave, the force said.

Wednesday’sdemonstrations in Birmingham and Manchester were the first time the group has operated north of London.

Greater Manchester Police were forced to spend hours dislodging activists who had glued themselves to the road near Manchester Airport, eventually arresting 11 people.

The group also targeted their normal stamping ground of the M25, with Hertfordshire Police arresting 20 people trying to block Junction 23, and the A1081 St Albans Road slip road.

Over the weekend Swedish activist Greta Thunberg voiced support for the group’s tactics, saying sometimes you have to ‘p*** people off’ to protect the environment.

It comes as world leaders and members of the Royal Family continue to gather in Glasgow for the landmark Cop26 climate change conference.