Jacob Rees-Mogg Goes Head-To-Head With Extinction Rebellion Spokesperson
19 April 2019, 18:57 | Updated: 30 April 2019, 11:48
Jacob Rees-Mogg told Dr Rupert Read, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, that he hoped the Government wouldn't give in to the group's demands.
Extinction Rebellion protesters continue to block off key areas of London on their fifth day of climate change protests.
Dame Emma Thompson joined protesters at Oxford Circus earlier today and told reporters that she had come to support the movement, having been greatly inspired by it.
As the group have consistently called for acknowledgement by members of parliament, Jacob Rees-Mogg came face-to-face with the spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.
Dr Rupert Read, an academic at the University of East Anglia, told Rees-Mogg that it simply wasn't true that the British record on climate is strong.
Dr Read claimed: "If you use the right statistics - if you include air emissions...then actually emissions have barely gone down since 1990. So it's just not true that we're showing leadership on this."
Jacob Rees-Mogg responded: "Don't you have a high profile actress who's flown over especially to join your protests? So you don't like air travel when it's for other people but when it's for your mates that's fine".
When asked to justify the protests, Dr Read said that "time was running out" and our political system was clearly "broken".
He explained that the protesters couldn't necessary stand for elections in order to effect political change because a lot of them are children.
The Extinction Rebellion spokesperson said the group was demanding Citizens Assemblies comprising elected individuals in the hope that this could then help bring about "drastic emissions reductions, and fast".
The Academic expressed: "The traditional democratic system is just not good enough...It's failing us and it's broken."
Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested that Dr Read had only resorted to the protests because he had "failed" to be elected as an MP.
Brushing off his comments, the climate change activist said: "This is an emergency. What part of that don't you understand?"
