Boris Johnson slams Extinction Rebellion’s ‘nose-ringed crusties in hemp-smelling bivouacs’

Eco-activists who left London in chaos today were branded ‘crusties’ and ‘importunate nose-ringed climate change protesters’ by Boris Johnson.

The Prime Minister told Extinction Rebellion demonstrators to ‘stop blocking the traffic’ as the city centre ground to a halt despite a massive police presence.

Officers arrested 280 protesters who closed bridges and major roads on the first day of a fortnight of action in London. 

Among activists in Trafalgar Square were celebrities including model Daisy Lowe, comedian Ruby Wax and actors Juliet Stevenson and Mark Rylance.

But residents, commuters, hospital patients and paramedics reacted with fury at the protests, which brought the capital to a standstill for the second time this year. 

Demonstrators set up roadblocks on Westminster and Lambeth Bridges, Victoria Street, Whitehall, Horse Guards Road and The Mall. Scotland Yard vowed to take a tougher line after being accused of surrendering the streets to them for more than a week during demonstrations in April.

But despite the arrests, police failed to move them all and restore order. Those affected up by the protest included the Prime Minister, who spoke at Banqueting House on Whitehall during the launch of the third volume of an official biography of Margaret Thatcher.

Attacking ‘the denizens of the heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs that now litter Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park Corner’, he said the former prime minister was a ‘true feminist green revolutionary’ who took greenhouse gases ‘seriously long before Greta Thunberg’.

Patients and staff at St Thomas’ Hospital were stranded, with ambulances struggling to get in or out. One paramedic at the hospital on the south side of Westminster Bridge said the protests caused ‘a lot of disruption’ and delayed ambulance journeys by up to 15 minutes. The gridlock left one cancer patient stuck outside the hospital for more than an hour because a taxi couldn’t get to her.

Veronica Smith, 55, who has lung cancer, attended an appointment at midday to drain her lungs. The care worker from Lewisham, south London, was discharged at 1.45pm but was still stranded at 3pm.

Another patient, who gave his name as Tony, 66, criticised the activists as he hobbled on a broken foot through the protest to attend an appointment.

He said: ‘My bus should have been stopping outside the hospital. They should be all arrested and water-cannoned. It is absolutely disgraceful. Why do they have to disrupt people’s lives?’ Meanwhile, delivery driver Shah Kamal, 22, from south London, said he had to abandon his vehicle for more than two hours after being caught up in blockades.

He fears he may not get paid after failing to complete his deliveries.

Having started work at 5am, he was still unable to drive over Lambeth Bridge almost 12 hours later. He said: ‘I don’t think I’m getting home tonight. It is just ridiculous.’

Some London activists glued themselves to scaffolding, and one parked a hearse in Trafalgar Square and locked himself to the steering wheel. They also shut down Smithfield meat market in east London. Mark Rylance gave a speech in which he revealed that his decision to resign from the Royal Shakespeare Company over its sponsorship contract with BP was inspired by teenage activist Greta Thunberg. Addressing a crowd off The Mall, he said: ‘The collapse of society is certain.’

Actress Juliet Stevenson said: ‘All over the world, millions and millions of people’s lives are already feeling the impact and livelihoods are being destroyed.’ The protesters staged a wedding, did yoga and set up camps with tents during the demonstration to curb global warming.

They also played cricket outside the Supreme Court, while ‘lady vicars’ occupying the south side of Lambeth Bridge sang hymns.

Extinction Rebellion claims the protests could be five times bigger than those in April, which brought major disruption to London and saw more than 1,100 arrests.

It cost Scotland Yard £16million to police the earlier demonstrations – enough to pay the salaries of 600 bobbies.

Yesterday, Downing Street said protesters who ‘significantly disrupt the lives of others’ should feel the ‘full force of the law’. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘It is essential that people can continue to go about their business. The right to peaceful protest does not extend to unlawful activity.

‘The Government expects police to take a firm stance against protesters who significantly disrupt the lives of others and to use the full force of the law.’

However, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell backed the activists, tweeting: ‘Solidarity #ExtinctionRebellion.’

Responding to a video of a protester resisting arrest, National Crime Agency chief Lynne Owens tweeted that Met Police officers ‘should not have to endure this sort of behaviour’. She added: ‘No cause can justify the assaulting of another human being.’

The protest is part of an ‘international rebellion’ taking place in cities including Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York.

Extinction Rebellion said in a statement: ‘As dawn broke today, many thousands of people from around the world entered a new phase of rebellion against planetary inaction. Groups across 60 cities began blocking roads, bridges and transport links with the intention of remaining until our voices are heard.’ 

As evening descended on the capital, activists could still be seen on Westminster Bridge holding a large banner saying ‘This is Change.’

And close to Westminster Abbey more tents were pitched up as protesters could be seen playing music and dancing after the first day of protests drew to a close.

In response to claims the police have been outnumbered by protesters, a spokesman for the Met said: ‘The Met has taken a robust stance in policing this protest with over 270 arrests made so far and the seizure of equipment that prevents sustained and unlawful protest and will continue to arrest.

‘We have a proportionate policing plan in place and relevant resources to deal with any incidents that may arise, however, whilst we have a significant number of officers policing the protests, we also have to ensure that enough officers remain on their boroughs to continue to carry out day-to-day policing and protect the wider community.’

Today was the first day of a planned fortnight of disruption by Extinction Rebellion, bringing chaos to London as they shut down key routes in the city.

Protesters were joined by eco-luvvies Daisy Lowe, Mark Rylance, Ruby Wax and Juliet Stevenson in Trafalgar Square as they shut down the landmark. 

For the next two weeks XR – which has posted details and maps of its planned disruptions in advance – intends to cripple the capital with 276 protesters arrested already since the protests began at 7am today.

One senior member warned ahead of the protests that if police shut them down: ‘We have other plans that are more disruptive’. 

Commuters vented their fury about long delays and miles of queues as they criticised the XR ‘hypocrites’ causing more pollution by forcing cars to sit idling, while others blasted the ‘nuisances’ who had ruined their journeys.

Today streets around Westminster were packed with police threatening to arrest anyone blocking roads – but witnesses said they were being swamped because of the number of eco-zealots gathering on streets and bridges.

Asked why officers did not block protesters from getting onto the bridge, the Met said: ‘We do not have the power to stop every person crossing a bridge. Those who have been found to be breaking the law have been dealt with robustly.’

One group locked themselves inside a car parked in the middle of Whitehall close to Downing Street and the Cenotaph – others chained themselves by the arms and head to a hearse parked in Trafalgar Square and glued themselves to scaffolding poles. 

It has become common for the detained protesters to be carried by police, because they try to cause maximum disruption by refusing to walk to the van – meaning it can take up to six officers for each arrest.  

MailOnline has asked the Metropolitan Police for comment about their handling of the protests.

On one end of Lambeth Bridge protesters started to build a house before climbing on top when police tried to dismantle it while Smithfield Market, London’s largest meat market, was ‘occupied’ by 500 people starting with a minute’s silence for the dead animals there and around the world.

Describing the scene close to Westminster Abbey, one onlooker told MailOnline: ‘Half of them are smoking weed, have cheap fold up tents that will just get binned and there is a bunch sitting in Pret’. Others wearing XR badges and carrying XR flags were seen getting lunch in McDonald’s on Whitehall.

TV stars were at the environmental group’s ‘opening ceremony’ under Nelson’s Column as thousands closed major bridges, blocked numerous roads and even invaded The Mall during the Changing of the Guard where Rylance helped carry a giant banner saying: ‘extinction or rebellion’.

Lowe posed next to Big Ben with friends including actress Jaime Winstone, popstar Eliza Caird, best known as Eliza Doolittle, and TV producer Emily Ann Sonnet who said: ‘Life is already extinct. It’s just a matter of saving what life we have left’.

Ministers are understood to be looking at whether protesters who damage parts of London can be held financially responsible. In an Extinction Rebellion stunt last week, fake blood was sprayed over the Treasury – although much of it ended up going back over the demonstrators themselves.

One government source suggested a mechanism could be bringing a civil action to hurt demonstrators ‘in their wallets’. ‘There is discussion about whether we can ensure they are bearing the cost,’ the source said. ‘Democratic protests is one thing, but you cannot wreck listed buildings.’

However, actress Juliet Stevenson called the protests ‘wonderful’, adding: ‘We can’t any longer allow governments to do this so we have to make it clear that there is no more time.

‘There’s a long tradition in this country of people saying governments are not acting, we have to make them realise how urgent this is.’

She told MailOnline that said she had been swayed to join the protests as she wanted a future for the planet and her four children. She said she felt a duty to do what she could to help stop environmental damage and climate change.

Stevenson said: ‘My children are saying they are not sure they want to have children when the planet is in such danger. I have a one-year-old grandchild too and I want to help ensure all of their futures.’ We have 12 years before the planet is irreversibly damaged. The scientists have warned about it.’

Ms Stevenson, 62, star of the film ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ praised the young activists who had decided to act and blamed herself and much of her own generation for not acting before.

‘I was in Parliament and saw a plaque in honour of the suffragettes. In 100 years time these young people will be heroes too for what they are doing today.’

Tory MP Mark Pritchard said: ‘Climate change needs to be tackled, the government is committed to net zero emissions by 2050, a huge step forward.

‘But what are ambulances carrying critical patients supposed to do with roads blocked, bridges occupied & displaced gridlock all over central London?’

And Former Labour MP Ian Austin said: ‘Not content with preventing ordinary Londoners from getting to work on buses – including people on zero hours contracts who will lose pay – the Extinction Rebelion protesters are blocking the bike lane on Lambeth Bridge and standing in the one on Westminster Bridge.’ 

Activists say the protests could be five times bigger than those in April, which saw more than 1,100 arrests. They are part of an ‘international rebellion’, with action also taking place in Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam and New York.

Police had arrested 148 protesters by 3pm today as key traffic routes through Westminster faced major congestion today with buses diverted and the demonstrations expected to escalate over the next fortnight.  

Parliament Square was empty of traffic except for police vans and bicycles as helicopters circled overhead, while on Lambeth Bridge protesters started to build a house before climbing on top when police tried to dismantle it. 

The demonstrators, who are also planning processions, marches and a sit-in at City Airport, claim they are ready to face arrest, go to jail and go on hunger strike as they urge politicians to outline plans to tackle climate change. 

The arrests today are in addition to those over the weekend, with eight people arrested on Saturday – seven on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance, and the eighth on suspicion of obstructing police. All those arrested on Saturday have been released under investigation.

And yesterday one woman and two men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance. The woman has been released under investigation, the men remain in custody, the police said.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is due to give a speech on Westminster Bridge at 6pm. But a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: ‘People are entitled to protest peacefully but they must do so within the law. It’s essential that people can go about their business going to work, visiting families and using vital public services.’

In response to a video of a protester resisting arrest, National Crime Agency chief Lynne Owens tweeted: ‘Thinking of all my colleagues at Metropolitan Police. They should not have to endure this sort of behaviour.’

XR protesters were also performing yoga on Westminster Bridge. Onlooker James Bickerton said: ‘Protesters on Westminster Bridge have lit an incense candle and got mats out for yoga. It’s all gone very rainbow rhythms.’

Meanwhile, demonstrators were lying under a trailer parked in the middle of the road at Trafalgar Square. Others stacked a pile of items including a kitchen sink, pans, and camp chairs beside them on the pavement.

This morning, activists gathered for their first protest on Victoria Embankment where they unfurled a banner on a human roadblock saying ‘XR Peace – For Earth, For All Of Us’ and held a placard saying: ‘Tell the Truth’.

XR protesters playing steel drums marched from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square, and a 25-year-old teacher from London who took the week off to join the protests said: ‘The plan is to shut down the whole of London.

‘The issue of climate change is an issue for everyone, and it’s clear we can’t leave it to the politicians. I booked the week off work for this. The school kids are out protesting too. Everyone is.’

Police are searching anyone suspected of carrying paint.

XR said protesters from the XR Peace group arrested as they blocked Victoria Embankment outside the Ministry of Defence included Sarah Lasenby, 81, a Quaker and retired social worker from Oxford. 

She said: ‘For 21 years my main concern has been to help get rid of UK nuclear weapons. I am still keen to do this but once I came across XR I was so relieved to have something I could do about the ghastly state we have got our planet in.’

She added: ‘The whole thing is so urgent that it is imperative the Government should take serious actions and put pressure on other states and Global Powers to radically reduce the use of fossil fuels even if this means we need to reduce our comfort at home and so much flying.’

Protesters were carried away by police officers on Horse Guards Road. An onlooker said he saw at least five people arrested after they refused to let a van through the road.

Video of the moment showed people being carried off to chants of ‘we love you’ from other protesters. Protesters also blocked Victoria Street were lying under a van while surrounded by police. 

An onlooker said: ‘Looks like lots of mini protests rather than a centralised area, huge range of people – if anything mainly middle-aged people.’

XR protester Caroline Hartnell, 69, from London, said she will be attending the protests every day. She said: ‘This is the start of two weeks of action. We are going to be surrounding all the Government ministries.

‘We are going to be putting pressure on them what they are going to do mend the climate emergency, because we are running out of time. I have seven grandchildren and the youngest is three. I feel passionately for them (and worry) there is not going to be a world for them to live in.’

Oxford University student Fergus Green from St Albans was also amid the growing crowd of drummers, stewards and flag-waving protesters planning to ‘shut down Westminster’.

He said: ‘People are coming from all over the country. I’m here to force the Government to take action on climate change. I’m a student, I should be at uni – my term has started. But I’m here to take action. People are missing work and school to be here.’

Police managed to break into an Extinction Rebellion van on Westminster Bridge and arrested the driver. Onlooker James Bickerton said: ‘Protesters blocked Westminster Bridge with two vans and started building a stage. 

‘Police have broken into one van and surrounded the other (at least two arrests) but still a lot of protesters blocking the bridge.’

Victoria Embankment remained closed outside the Ministry of Defence.

And Victoria Street close to Westminster Abbey, and side roads by Methodist Central Hall, are being held by another group of protesters with banners that read ‘tell the truth’ and ‘no coal mines, no fracking’.

On the first day of the two-week international protest, XR protesters made their way to Whitehall waving ‘XR’ logo flags and marched with a steel drum band. 

Protesters said they plan to ‘shut down the whole of Westminster’ and surround the ministries.

Two protesters have mounted a Land Rover and trailer at Trafalgar Square roundabout, one wearing a gas mask and trench coat and the other with an XR flag and a sign reading ‘stop ecoside’. Police surrounded the vehicle.

Police officers were photographed carrying away protesters, with one was cut out from a rig carrying a fake nuclear weapon saying ‘Trident – Immoral, obsolete, militarily useless’ near the Ministry of Defence.  

One tearful activist called Rowan compared the protesters to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, telling LBC radio: ‘I’m feeling quite moved at the moment because I’ve just been watching people being taken away.

‘It’s very moving seeing people giving their freedom and giving so much of their lives. Some of these people have been doing this for years, trying to raise the warning about climate change.

‘I really feel that this is their last chance to try to turn things around. If we don’t turn it around this time, that’s it. That’s it for the people in the future. 

‘I feel the legacy we’ve inherited from the people who have done non-violence civil disobedience in the past – people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi. They all fought for freedom and human rights and for the right for life on earth. They’ve handed the torch on to us.’

Police moved into remove the fake missile as protesters shouted ‘Tell the Truth’, and several chained themselves into a car along the Embankment before officers used cutting gear to remove the chains and arrest them.

Many of the protesters risked being arrested on suspicion of obstruction of the highway. The Highways Act 1980 states that ‘if a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence’. 

Scores of colourfully dressed activists – and their children – gathered at Marble Arch this morning following an ‘opening ceremony’ yesterday to mark the biggest-ever occupation of the streets.

In the document titled Full Briefing For Swarming Actions, protesters are told they are ‘the bringers of hope’ and ‘will pry open the darkness to let the light in’ – even though they admit they will infuriate many Britons. 

‘We need to be aware that we’ll come under attack,’ it reads. ‘If the system is seriously threatened it will fight back.  The people losing profits will hate us. The media will demonise us. The people in the street may resist us.

On an XR broadcast group on Telegram where organisers give updates to protestors, they wrote this morning: ‘Today the international Rebellion is starting in 60 cities around the world. 

‘As the sun rises in London rebels arrive from across the country. Police may take our pillows or our gazebos. But we are everything we need. Maybe bring some water and waterproofs though!

‘We will continue to rebel until this Government act as if the truth is real. With truth, love and nonviolence. We will sit in the roads together today. With or without bean bags. See you in the streets. Extinction Rebellion.’

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘As of 8am on Monday, October 7 there have been a total of 21 arrests in connection with the Extinction Rebellion protests.

‘On Sunday, October 6 one female and two males were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance. The female has been released under investigation, the males remain in custody.

‘On Saturday, October 5 eight arrests were made. Seven arrests were on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance, while the eighth was made on suspicion of obstructing police. All those arrested on Saturday have been released under investigation.’

Secret plans seen by the Daily Mail have revealed tactics by XR to frustrate the police, cause ‘economic disruption’ and ‘take over’ government departments.

The group has warned its peaceful protest blockading Westminster would be five times bigger than those seen earlier this year – and could disrupt the Queen’s Speech. The protesters will issue an alternative ‘People’s Speech’ – which will be ‘based on the demands of the rebels on the streets’. 

‘We might be called terrorists. We might cause people to go hungry. Parents will be late picking up their kids. We’ll cause people to struggle to pay rent.

‘We’ll cause people working on wonderful, progressive, healing art projects to have their cause set back and their art seen by no one. At the same time we need to hold the awareness that these things are occurring within an insane and suicidal system.’

But Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, who is the police chief in charge of dealing with the Extinction Rebellion protests, told LBC radio today: ‘The police’s role is to enforce the law.

‘Where behaviour is unlawful, and obstructing the highways for significant periods of time, or other behaviour that we anticipate, which is unlawful, we will deal with – and we will deal with robustly.’

It comes after the activists were able to spray nearly 400 gallons of organic water containing beetroot on the Treasury and themselves last week before at least 30 officers and 12 police vehicles arrived on the scene. 

Footage of the spray painting suggested there were no police on the scene when the incident began. A large cordon was later put place around the fire engine, which was bought on eBay for around £2,000 by activists.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps warned the disruption was ‘unlikely to win over hearts and minds and will do damage to the economy and people’s livelihoods’. He added: ‘I am concerned that it will potentially turn people against an important cause.’ 

The activists plan to shut down 11 roads around Whitehall. Some of the roadblocks will consist of about 20 cyclists who will hand out cupcakes to placate irate motorists.

The group compares the tactic to Genghis Khan’s ‘Mongolian light cavalry’. Their document advises calming drivers with remarks such as: ‘You’re really angry, I can see that – and you really want to be on your way, yeah?’

Extinction Rebellion plans to hand out ‘bust cards’ informing protesters of their legal rights. It says that small-scale deployments are harder for police to ‘kettle’ – or contain.

It also advises a tactic of 50 people walking backwards and forwards across a crossing continuously for seven minutes to create ‘cascading congestion’, adding: ‘This is totally legal.’

Protests in April saw about 5,000 activists take part – with actress Emma Thompson making a speech on top of a pink sailing boat at Oxford Circus.

This time Extinction Rebellion says it will muster 20,000 to 30,000 protesters. Activists drove tractors painted pink towards London yesterday. One Twitter user remarked: ‘Is it running on diesel, or a prayer?’ 

Celebrities also backed the protest. Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman and TV hosts Stephen Fry and Alan Carr donned the group’s ‘X’ badges at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday night, joined by comedian Asim Chaudry and US actress Crystal Clarke.

Spice Girl Mel B said: ‘I’m giving all my support to these brave activists to make a better world for us all.’ Model Daisy Lowe offered her support, saying: ‘It’s time for change. It’s time for rebellion and I love being able to be part of it.’

Miss Colman and Chaudry have both appeared in British Airways in-flight safety films. London City Airport, from which BA operates, is a target.

Extinction Rebellion spokesman Joel Scott-Halkes said: ‘We’re going to blockade and shut down every single road going into the central area of Westminster around the government.’

On Saturday, Met Police used a battering ram to raid a warehouse in Kennington, South London. Seven women and three men were arrested.

Transport officials warned commuters to the capital to leave plenty of time for travel and check for disruption.