Zac Goldsmith Tells Nick Ferrari He Sympathises With Extinction Rebellion

15 October 2019, 10:44

The Tory minister and former London mayoral candidate told Nick Ferrari that he "totally sympathises" with why Extinction Rebellion are protesting.

Nick Ferrari asked Goldsmith whether he supported what Extinction Rebellion had done.

Goldsmith replied: "Look, I have mixed views on it. I support the cause, clearly, I think they are right that we face a crisis.

"I can't think of any other language to use for it on whether its climate change, where all the predictions now are terrifying, or whether it's what we're doing to the natural world - which is even more upsetting, I think, the fact that the figure I gave you about biodiversity loss in the UK is mirrored across the world.

"60% of land animals gone in the last 45 years, a million species facing extinction. I don't think anyone doubts that. We're losing 47 football pitches worth of forest every single minute.

"It is a crisis and we know you don't have to be a mathematician to know where it's going to end up if these trends continue. So they're right to highlight that.

"Where I think they're wrong is in the strategy they've used. I don't think it is clever to attempt to win people over to a gigantic cause by infuriating people going about their daily lives.

I think it's strategically not an intelligent way to do it but I totally sympathise with the reason why they're doing it."

Nick Ferrari then asked: "Are they crusties, lastly, Mr Goldsmith?"

Goldsmith said that he was "sure some of them are crusties" but that he had "met nothing but civilised people".

He added: "I know there have been a lot of arrests but I can't square that with what I've seen."