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 truck from Northampton-based insulation company CCF, which is owned by Travis Perkins, displayed a series of services offered by the firm including ‘insulation, drywall, ceilings, partitioning, screening, fire protection’.

The irony is Insulate Britain’s whole mantra revolves around demanding that Prime Minister Boris Johnson fast-tracks plans to insulate UK homes to cut carbon emissions – and it wants this done by the end of the decade.

Demonstrations by Insulate Britain – which also wants a ‘legally binding’ national plan published within four months – have already cost Scotland Yard nearly £2million in the first four weeks of its two months of protests.

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. 

A Scotland Yard spokesman said today: ‘We are continuing to respond to a protest in Parliament Square this morning where a number of activists have sat on the road, blocking traffic. 

‘Officers are on scene and are working as quickly as possible to get traffic flowing again. Around 40 activists have used superglue to stick to the ground, frustrating and delaying our response.

‘Specialist teams are on scene and train for this scenario. They are working to remove any glue and make arrests. This process can take time. Insulate Britain have the right to assemble and protest, however they do not have the right to cause serious disruption to London and prevent others from going about their business.’

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 its action 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, ex-Met deputy assistant commissioner at 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’. 

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps revealed today that ‘475 injunctions have been served to protesters at their homes for contempt of court’, in relation to Insulate Britain protests.

He told the House of Commons: ‘So far, following my requirement that National Highways seek injunctions against these protesters, 475 injunctions have been served to protesters at their homes for contempt of court. Thirty-two are due to be coming to court, nine of which are coming later this month.’

Mr Shapps also said the Insulate Britain protesters are ‘preventing members from getting into the chamber which is completely unacceptable’.

He said: ‘When it gets to the point that protesting against climate change prevents members from this House getting here to hold ministers to account and be heard it is clearly counter-productive.

‘Contempt of court can lead to unlimited fines, and prison sentences. And we will be acting where the law has a gap in it through the Police and Crime Bill to resolve the gap that has led to this.’

Ru Roberts, UK country manager at sat nav app Waze said: ‘Climate change protesters have attempted to block Parliament Square and are causing tailbacks, with current delays at Whitehall resulting in average speeds as low as 4mph.

‘To avoid getting stuck in bumper-to-bumper queues, we recommend motorists plan their journeys ahead of time and use alternative routes where possible.’

The Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle said Insulate Britain protesters were ‘blocking democracy’ by prevent MPs from attending Parliament.

He was speaking after the Commons heard that Conservative MPs Darren Henry for Broxtowe and Adam Afriyie for Windsor were unable to attend due to protests outside Parliament.

Mr Afriyie was due to ask about re-evaluating the carbon cost of a third runway at Heathrow, and Mr Henry was due to ask about encouraging the uptake of walking and cycling.

Sir Lindsay said: ‘Once again the Member of the Parliament can’t access the House to represent democracy and his constituents.

‘Once again these people are blocking democracy and the fact that people are actually talking about the same issues and being blocked from doing so is totally counterproductive.’

Sir Lindsay had earlier told the House: ‘We have got a slight problem. Darren Henry is trapped outside because Insulate Britain have blocked the access to the House.

‘This is totally unacceptable. This is interfering with democracy. This is not what should happen and it is a tragedy that those constituents are not going to be represented by the member for Broxtowe.’

Today at Parliament Square, Paul Sheeky, a protester from London, was among those glued to the pavement.

He said: ‘We have been out on the road now for several weeks and a lot of the time the drivers say to us ‘this is not the right way to be doing this, go to Parliament, protest there’.

‘We thought we would take that advice and give it a go. We know from protesting in Parliament in the past it doesn’t work, which is why we have to protest on the roads, but we thought we would come here all together as a show of unity just to say, yes we are going to keep going.’ 

He added: ‘This is fine compared to what is coming from the climate crisis, this is a walk in the park essentially.

‘The death and destruction that is on its way unless we tackle this issue is just beyond imagining. A slight discomfort now is a small price to pay for saving lives in the future.’ 

Diana Hekt, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was also glued to the pavement next to Mr Sheeky. She said police communicating with the protesters had been ‘very civil and polite’.

Peter Anthony-Gord, a bus driver with Abellio London Bus, criticised the group’s action.

He said: ‘I don’t think they are doing this properly. I really think there is a better way to do this. There are ways of insulating Britain which you can do with other sources, other people, companies, private finance etc rather than causing absolute chaos in London. This is not going to insulate one home sitting here.’

Mr Anthony-Gord said he had been waiting in his bus at the head of the queuing traffic on Parliament Square for 34 minutes, and would usually be driving a route towards Crystal Palace over Lambeth Bridge.

Rachel Speller, a bus driver’s wife, had walked to the front of the traffic to see what had happened after sitting on a bus with her husband, the driver, in the tailback along Whitehall.

She said: ‘It is just getting ridiculous now. Every other week there is some sort of protest and now they glue themselves to the floor.’ 

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’s demonstrations 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.