Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook reveals she drives a DIESEL car
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook is branded a hypocrite after revealing she drives a DIESEL car instead of an electric vehicle
Dr Gail Bradbrook, 49, helped to set up the protest group in 2018She told TalkRadio presenter Cristo Foufas that she cannot afford an electric carWhen pressed further, she admitted that she drives a diesel vehicleSaid that she needs the car to take her children to football and rugby fixtures
The founder of radical climate activist group Extinction Rebellion has admitted that she drives a diesel car.
Dr Gail Bradbrook, 49, who helped to set up the protest group in 2018, made the revelation in an angry interview with TalkRadio presenter Cristo Foufas on Monday.
After revealing that she drives a car, she admitted that she does not own an electric vehicle because she cannot afford one.
When pressed further by Foufas about what type of car it was, she admitted it is powered by diesel, which is considered by experts to be even more harmful to the environment than petrol.
She said that she needs the car to take her children to football and rugby fixtures because her home is not served by ‘buses that run on a Sunday.’
The exchange then became more tempestuous when Foufas branded her a ‘hypocrite’ and she responded by calling him a ‘boring interviewer’.
Molecular biologist Dr Bradbrook was previously criticised for flying 11,000 miles to Costa Rica in 2016 to stay at the £2,500 luxury New Life Iboga resort.
She claimed in today’s interview that she flew to the island because of a health issue which could not be dealt with in the UK.
The interview came as Extinction Rebellion’s climate activists brought London to a standstill today after they erected a giant pink table in the middle of the capital’s West End.
The impromptu stunt – which started just after midday today – has forced police to close off several roads around the area which would normally be thronged with tourists and families sightseeing.
The founder of radical climate activist group Extinction Rebellion has admitted that she drives a diesel car. Dr Gail Bradbrook, 49, who helped to set up the protest group in 2018, made the revelation in an angry interview with TalkRadio presenter Cristo Foufas on Monday
After revealing that she drives a car, she admitted that she does not own an electric vehicle because she cannot afford one. When pressed further by Foufas about what type of car it was, she admitted it is powered by diesel
Dr Bradbrook revealed what type of car she owns when she talked about how she could live in a more environmentally friendly way.
She said: ‘You can definitely find things about my life, I’ve spent a lot of money on my house, put solar panels on it, I had to take insulation and re-insert it.
‘I’ve done lots of good things but I also don’t get it all right. I drive a car for example.’
When asked by Foufas if it was electric, she said: ‘No, because I can’t afford it. But if somebody wants to give me £5,000 you can convert my car to electric and I don’t have the money at the minute.
Asked what car she drives, she said: ‘It was claimed to be a really green car at the time when I bought it… it is a diesel car.’
A shocked Foufas then said diesels are ‘terrible’ for the environment, prompting Dr Bradbrook, who lives in Staffordshire, to defend herself.
‘Wouldn’t it be great if some of us could put our cars into community ownership. Get them converted to electric,’ she said.
‘So if anyone wants my car and they can pay for it to be converted to electric and other people can share it they are very welcome.
‘I can’t get my kids to sports fixtures, they are both into football and rugby, I do lots of liftsharing but I can’t get them there because we don’t have buses that run on a Sunday.
‘So some of the things are systemic issues aren’t they? We all do what we can.
‘What you’re doing is a classic thing of trying to make it personal.’
The exchange then became more tempestuous when presenter Cristo Foufas (pictured) branded her a ‘hypocrite’ and she responded by calling him a ‘boring interviewer’
However, Foufas then accused the activist of hypocrisy.
He said: ‘How can you say it’s not personal. You are asking me and politicians to change my life personally, so of course it is personal.
‘And if you drive a diesel, if you take a holiday that takes up 11,000 air miles and then you are asking me or asking politicians to enforce rules that make me change my life, of course I am going to say you are a hypocrite.’
Further on in the exchange, Dr Bradbrook told Foufas: ‘You are a really boring interviewer mate, this is so boring.
‘We have to change the system love, it is really clear.
‘If I was really green, you would be saying to me: ‘Oh you want us all to go back in the caves like you Gail.’
‘Whatever I do I will be wrong. Can we just talk about the reality of this crisis?,’ she added.
The interview came as Extinction Rebellion’s climate activists brought London to a standstill today after they erected a giant pink table in the middle of the capital’s West End
Dr Bradbrook’s 2019 trip to Costa Rica had a carbon footprint of 2.6 tonnes. This is a quarter of the amount that the average Briton emits in a whole year.
She posted on Facebook that her holiday was ‘filled with nature and the warm sea’ and sightings of exotic wildlife including iguanas and monkeys that ‘smash mangoes on the roofs’.
However, she said today that she in fact flew to the sunny location because the treatment she was seeking for a health issue was ‘not legal’ in the UK.
In December 2019, Dr Bradbrook denied causing £27,500 of damage to the Department of Transport building when she smashed the bullet-proof window with a chisel and hammer, Westminster Magistrates Court was told.
Dr Bradbrook scaled the government building in Horseferry Road, Westminster, to rally fellow eco-warriors and clambered onto a ledge above a revolving door before attacking the glass panel.
Dr Bradbrook founded Extinction Rebellion with ex-boyfriend Simon Bramwell. She previously said that she began the group after taking ‘psychedelic medicines’.
She said she ‘prayed in a deep way’ while taking the substances on a retreat.
She told a BBC Inside Out West documentary that her prayer was answered within a month.
