Five protesters interrupted a hustings in St Mary’s Church, Saffron Walden, to challenge government minister Kemi Badenoch over her and her party’s relationship with climate deniers and big polluters. It comes as the general election has just hours before polls open.
Kemi Badenoch: in bed with the polluters
Stop Polluting Politics is a new campaign aiming to push the fossil fuel lobby out of Westminster and stop polluters from bankrolling political parties. It says:
We must break the money pipeline and ensure that whichever party wins the upcoming general election will represent us, not the fossil fuel industry.
Climate Resistance is a grassroots collective who take action against the elites who are pushing us towards climate breakdown. Its first campaign is Stop Polluting Politics.
Since 2019, the Conservative Party has taken £8.4m pounds from fossil fuel interests, polluters, and climate sceptics, while Kemi Badenoch herself accepted a thousand-pound gala ticket from Michael Hintze, a well-known climate denier.
The protesters stood up at the hustings on Monday 1 July one at a time to deliver speeches, before being escorted from the event, receiving both jeers and applause:
Badenoch, who was was at the hustings to contest the seat of North West Essex in the upcoming general election, was also challenged over her stance on Gaza.
Sam Simons, spokesperson for Stop Polluting Politics, said:
To avoid dangerous climate change, our government must get the country off dirty oil and gas and onto clean, home-grown wind and solar power. But big oil companies are hijacking our politics in a desperate bid to protect their profits and slow down action on climate change.
That’s why we challenged Kemi Badenoch today. The Tories have taken £8.4 million from climate deniers and big polluters, while issuing new oil drilling licences and giving huge tax breaks to the oil and gas sector. Kemi herself was gifted a £1,000 ticket to a glitzy gala by a well-known climate denier. We demand to know who’s side they’re on. Do they work for us, or for them?
We’re already seeing floods, famines, and fires. We know that the climate crisis could get much worse. If we want a safe future, we must break the oil industry’s influence.
Featured image via Climate Resistance
