Insulate Britain eco mob defy court injunction and block the M25 for sixth time

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Insulate Britain today defied a court injunction to block the M25 for a sixth time – as they taunted drivers already suffering from a fuel crisis by saying, ‘You can throw as many injunctions at us as you like’. 

The hated eco mob formed a barricade at junction 14 by Heathrow Airport – with dozens of protesters again putting drivers’ lives at risk by running into traffic and sitting down on the tarmac before being hauled away by police. Traffic is now running smoothly, the AA said.  

The group’s hypocrite spokesman Liam Norton – who became a national laughing stock laugh week after storming off Good Morning Britain when he was quizzed on claims his own home hadn’t been insulated – vowed he and his fellow eco loons would continue breaking the law and ‘aren’t going anywhere’. 

National Highways were granted injunctions to prevent people obstructing the M25 and A20 following further demonstrations at the Port of Dover on Friday. These mean activists involved in today’s protest could face time in prison. The group said 52 people were involved in total. 

It comes after a woman had to be airlifted to hospital after a multi-vehicle crash blamed on the protesters and a son said he watched his mother suffer a stroke while stuck in six-hour queues on the way to hospital, leaving her paralysed. 

Today, angry drivers got out of their cars and berated protesters, who used superglue to frustrate the police response, as one woman told the mob she was ‘trying to feed my kid’.  

The mob contained many familiar faces, including the Rev Tim Hewes, 71, who was criticised by the Diocese of Oxford for his role blocking roads last month, with a spokesman saying it did not support breaking the law and was ‘unclear’ how his actions had helped promote his cause. 

Meanwhile, Dr Diana Warner, 62, a retired GP from Bristol, today she was at her fifth motorway blockade. ‘I’m here because of desperation, it’s not an easy thing to do,’ she said. ‘This is the fifth time I’ve been here trying to block a motorway because the only way to get the Government to listen is to disrupt things.’

There has been anger at protesters being arrested at blockades then quickly released from custody only to head straight to the next demonstration. Another demonstrator, volunteer language teacher Victoria Lindsell, 66, said: ‘I’m wet through and I’m cold, it’s not my choice but I cannot have the responsibility and not do anything about it.’ 

Scroll down for video.  

The High Court granted National Highways an interim injunction preventing protesters from occupying the A20 and strategic roads linked to the Port of Dover after an Insulate Britain rabble sat down on roads in and out of the cross-Channel ferry port at about 8.20am on Friday.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: ‘We are absolutely committed to protecting the right to peaceful protest, but it is unacceptable that people cannot go about their day-to-day businesses and that businesses or critical supplies should be put on a knife’s edge because of the reckless actions of a few protesters.’

Those who breach the injunction will be in contempt of court and at risk of imprisonment and an unlimited fine, the Government said.

The injunction request came after the group blocked parts of the M25 five times in the past fortnight, much to the ire of motorists and passengers caught up in miles of snaking traffic.

Insulate Britain, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, is calling for the Government to insulate homes in the UK to help cut carbon emissions.

Today its spokesman Liam Norton insisted court orders would not have any effect, saying: ‘You can throw as many injunctions at us as you like, but we are going nowhere. ‘You can raid our savings and confiscate our property. You can deny us our liberty and put us behind bars. But that is only shooting the messenger.

‘The truth is that this country is going to hell unless you take emergency action to stop putting carbon into the air.’ 

During his disastrous appearance on GMB last week, the 36-year-old plumber extraordinarily compared himself to Sir Winston Churchill. 

Asked about whether the group was happy to break a court injunction, fellow spokesman Tracey Mulligan told LBC today: ‘I wouldn’t say we are happy, we are just putting things into the bigger context. 

‘We are tired of over seven million people having to choose between heating or eating and we know that’s going to get worse with the energy crisis that we’re facing now.’ 

One campaigner, identified only as Emily, 22, from Manchester, said: ‘I’m terrified about what’s coming down the road, particularly after the floods, storms and wildfires we’ve seen in Europe and Canada this year.

‘I’m worried about what happens when we run out of food and society begins to break down. I feel like the Government isn’t acting fast enough and won’t be able to protect us.

‘Insulating our homes is the most basic first step – it will get emissions down, create jobs and help families in fuel poverty – that’s real levelling up.

‘The Government knows what needs to be done. They just need to get on with it.’ 

The Met said this morning: We’re attending a protest at Junction 14 of the M25 near Heathrow Airport where activists are blocking traffic on a slip road. 

‘We are on scene and have opened one lane of the carriageway. Arrests are being made – we will share updates shortly.’ 

Today’s protest could not come at a worse time for motorists, as panic buying combined with the HGV driver shortage led to up to nine in ten forecourts running dry.  

Drivers queued for four hours or more in lines stretching for miles as it was revealed Boris Johnson could call in the Army to deliver petrol and diesel to petrol stations across Britain amid a crisis that has seen competition laws suspended to allow businesses such as Shell and BP to share drivers. 

A lack of fuel has led to a mass return to working from home today, just weeks after the Government lifted most coronavirus-related legislation to get more people into the office. 

TomTom traffic data revealed that congestion is down today in all major cities.

Schools have said they will return to the online classrooms used in lockdown if teachers can’t get to work – with some parents also unable to drive – while many petrol stations are now prioritising NHS workers in special two-hour slots where they must show ID to fill up.

One school in Surrey wrote to parents over the weekend saying: ‘The current petrol crisis could potentially disrupt school next week. 

‘The ability of staff and pupils to get to school may be compromised and there may also be issues with our food deliveries. 

‘Clearly, we have no desire to go back online so soon after the challenges of the last couple of years but we cannot exclude the possibility that it may be necessary’.

One headteacher tweeted: ‘This is actually going to be a problem. I don’t have any fuel myself and all the stations in my area are out of diesel. Most of my teachers commute further than ten miles to work’.   

Desperate motorists have even started following fuel delivery drivers to petrol stations, earning the nickname ‘tanker w***ers’ from critics, as panic buying continues across the UK with fights even breaking out at the pumps. 

One Twitter user said: ‘My brother in law is a lorry driver and delivers fuel. He’s on the road now and there are people following him – literally tracking his every turn – in cars. He says it’s like end of days’. He added: ‘I worried it might be really scary for him, but he just thinks they’re all kn*bs’.

Ministers will consider drafting in troops to deliver petrol and diesel later this week if panic-buying persists, sources said, after Government officials gave the green light for plans to bring in 5,000 foreign lorry drivers to deal with the shortage. 

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has agreed to implement a measure to temporarily exempt the oil industry from the Competition Act 1998, as part of a plan called the Downstream Oil Protocol, for the purpose of sharing information and optimising supply.

Officials said the measure will make it easier for industry to share information so that they can prioritise the delivery of fuel to the parts of the country and strategic locations that are most in need.   

Gordon Balmer, executive director of the Petrol Retailers Association, which represents 5,500 independent stations, told LBC some petrol brands are seeing as many as 90% of their sites running dry. 

He said: ‘We did a straw poll yesterday morning of a number of our members who have around 200 sites between them.

‘Fifty per cent of those we spoke to said their sites were dry and some actually said 90 per cent of their sites were dry, so it is on a company-by-company basis and almost on a brand-by-brand basis because some oil companies are still relatively okay in terms of deliveries.’

When asked about possible Government plans to grant temporary visas to get more HGV drivers, Mr Balmer said: ‘We are a fuel retailing trade association, not a logistics company, but I would have thought anything like that is going to help, but from what I hear maybe that’s not enough, so I know the Government are looking at other measures such as drafting in military drivers.

‘What we’re hoping is a lot of people have filled up over the weekend, a lot of people only fill up once a month, that might give us some respite to start to replenish stocks over the next few days.’

A suspension to competition law to assist with fuel supplies would be ‘very welcome’, Brian Madderson of the Petrol Retailers Association has said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Madderson said that in Northern Ireland ‘there does not seem to be a problem at all with supply and retail outlets, so the problem is confined to the mainland’.

He said: ‘With the problem of dry sites, we’re really talking more about the concentrated urban areas than we are the rural areas at this stage’.

He said dry sites ‘are being restocked at the present time but the number of tankers that they’re receiving are below the number that they need to be properly restocked at their normal level of between 40% and 50%’.