Cops needs to crack down on climate yobs and be more like Jonny Bairstow, says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
RISHI Sunak today urges police and sports chiefs to be more like England cricket star Jonny Bairstow when tackling climate protesters ruining a summer of stadium action.
The PM and Home Secretary Suella Braverman will host an emergency summit tomorrow with major sporting bodies and cops.
It comes amid threats to Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix and three more Ashes Tests after protests at snooker, rugby and cricket events.
Writing in The Sun today, Mr Sunak urges event organisers to channel the spirit of wicketkeeper Bairstow, who last week “coolly carried away a Just Stop Oil eco-zealot” who invaded the playing area.
He writes: “As Bairstow showed at Lord’s, people want an end to this disruption. And I will work with the police and the sporting authorities to ensure we do stop it.”
Sports minister Lucy Frazer is also urging cops to use powers they already have to do more to tackle guerrilla protests at big events.
Declaring war on “miserable” climate groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, the PM also slams Sir Keir Starmer for being in cahoots with XR protesters in Labour-run Wales, while publicly claiming to disapprove of climate extremists.
The Sun can reveal climate activists say they have been invited to quarterly meetings with Wales’ government.
A recent Welsh XR members email claims they were even allowed to work on policy documents “with civil servants before publication”.
Welsh climate change minister Julie James has defended “co-operating” with the group, calling dialogue with them “productive” and “beneficial”.
Finance minister Rebecca Evans said the Welsh government finds meetings with XR “very informative and useful”.
Between September 2020 and March 2021 alone, Welsh ministers met XR seven times.
The PM says: “We should remember Labour have said their government in Wales is their ‘blueprint’ for the rest of the country.”