Fury as UN criticises ‘severe’ sentences of eco-protesters after selfish protests waged war on public & wasted cop time
THE UN sparked a chorus of condemnation in Westminster today after its officials accused the government of being too tough on dangerous eco-yobs.
Outraged MPs slammed the interfering and unelected organisation as “daft”, and insisted its staff focus on foreign tyrants rather than “spoilt” protestors.
In 2022 Just Stop Oil activists Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, were locked up for three and two years respectively for causing a public nuisance.
The pair scaled the Dartford Crossing Bridge for almost 40 hours causing total traffic gridlock.
In a letter to ministers the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, Ian Fry, said that long sentences for eco-loons could stifle freedom of speech and protest.
Mr Fry, who says he enjoys playing canoe polo in his spare time, added that penalties were “significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past”.
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Scathing MPs lined up to criticise Mr Fry, who they said doesn’t have to suffer the consequences of disruptive eco-nuts from a “New York skyscraper”.
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel led the charge, telling The Sun: “The public are incensed with Just Stop Oil, their selfish actions, the enormous waste of police time and the hefty resources and the disruption they cause the public with their pathetic attention-seeking stunts.
“As a sovereign nation, there is no place of the United Nations which has no elected mandate over UK law enforcement and our courts to give a view on sentencing Policy in the UK.
“This overreach must stop and our Government must always stand up for the law abiding majority in our country.”
Commons Transport Committee member Greg Smith said: “UN chiefs didn’t have to put up with the severe disruption Just Stop Oil terrorists afflicted on the British public.
“It’s all very well them opining on their view from lofty New York skyscrapers, but the vast majority of the British people want to see these highly disruptive, dangerous and infuriating Just Stop Oil protestors punished for a very long time.”
Former Minister Brendan Clarke-Smith added: “These regular daft reports and statements from Special Rapporteurs are really starting to make people question whether the UN can still be treated as a serious organisation or not.
“This is especially the case when they have inexplicably allowed Iran to chair the UN Human Rights Forum.
“They should concentrate their focus on challenging despotic regimes over their widespread abuses of human rights, rather than championing the extreme causes of spoilt activists.”
Today isn’t the first time UN officials have sparked fury among British lawmakers.
In 2014 a UN housing rapporteur and former Marxist, nicknamed the “Brazil Nut”, infuriated then-DWP Secretary Sir Iain Duncan Smith after she criticised coalition Welfare reforms.
Commenting on the latest intervention, Sir Iain said “the whole idea of Special Rapporteurs should be binned”, adding “their reports are always ghastly”.
He told The Sun : “They add no value to the debate, the are self-selecting and therefore always on the side of any protester and their criticism ignores the fact doctors, nurses, teachers would not have been able to get to their place of work.
“That is why they got the sentences they got, and we hope that every other protester that does stupid, reckless and dangerous are similarly punished.
“To come in they have to have the agreement of the government, we always give them the nod, because the Foreign Office say we should let these characters in.
“They don’t get into other countries, there are many countries that simply don’t let them in. They are only here to attack a Conservative government.”
Former Minister Jonathan Gullis added: “The UN needs to keep its nose out of our business when it’s the British people who have to suffer with these eco extremist fools endangering their own lives, and the public’s with their pathetic stunts.”