Extinction Rebellion activists visited the Blackfriars Road offices of the UK Labour Party yesterday morning, pouring fake oil on the steps of the entrance, while two young women scaled a canopy, erected a banner and set off smoke flares.
The activists are calling on the Labour Party to distance itself from Conservative policy and heed the advice of international scientists and economists, as well as bodies such as the United Nations and the International Energy Agency, who are saying there should be no new oil and gas exploration.
The Conservatives have granted licences for more than a hundred new projects, and the protesters want Labour to announce it will revoke these if it wins the election, as well as commit to a ban on all new exploration.
Labour is in a powerful position to accelerate the UK’s move away from fossil fuels. By making an announcement now that it would not support new exploration (including the controversial Rosebank oil field), it would affect investment whatever the outcome of a general election for fear of stranded assets.
But currently it seems to be in thrall to the same fossil fuel lobbyists as the Conservatives, and voters with serious concerns over the fast developing climate emergency are facing an election with no real offer of change.
Yesterday’s action was part of a ‘Cut The Ties’ campaign targeting the web of organisations that prop up the fossil fuel economy.
(Title image courtesy of Luke Flegg)
