Climate activists drape British prime minister’s home in ‘oil-black’ fabric
The prime minister and his family were not at home when the climate protesters targeted the property in a tiny hamlet near the North Yorkshire town of Northallerton around 8.a.m. local time, police said. Political protests at politicians’ private homes are typically rare in Britain.
After breaching the grounds of Sunak’s house, the activists shared photographs of themselves climbing onto the building’s roof with ladders, ropes and more than 2,000 square feet of what they described as “oil-black fabric” — which they draped down one of its facades. It was not immediately clear how they were able to reach the house.
In a statement, police in North Yorkshire said they became aware of the protest shortly after 8 a.m. local time. In an 11 a.m. update, they said that four protesters remained on the roof but that officers had successfully “contained the area.” When asked over the phone, an official at North Yorkshire Police declined to elaborate on what security arrangements existed at the prime minister’s private home.
Greenpeace later said the activists spent five hours on top of Sunak’s house, descending voluntarily after discussions with police who then arrested four of them. North Yorkshire Police did not immediately announce whether it was charging any of the activists.
In a message on Twitter, Greenpeace activists said they had been aware that the prime minister was not at home at the time of the protest. On the roof, they unfolded a banner calling for “no new oil,” in protest of the British prime minister’s announcement that the United Kingdom would push ahead with oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, despite the country’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
On Monday, Sunak announced that he would approve “hundreds” of new oil and gas licenses as part of a drive to make Britain less dependent on energy imports. “Even when we’ve reached net zero in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs will come from oil and gas. But there are those who would rather that it come from hostile states than from the supplies we have here at home,” Sunak said.
Environmental activists expressed distress over the announcement. “We desperately need our prime minister to be a climate leader, not a climate arsonist. Just as wildfires and floods wreck homes and lives around the world, Sunak is committing to a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling,” said Philip Evans, a climate campaigner and digital strategist with Greenpeace UK, in a statement about Thursday’s protest. “It’s time for Sunak to choose between Big Oil’s profits or our future on a habitable planet.”
Greenpeace’s targeting of Sunak’s private residence was condemned by some British lawmakers, who argued that breaching the prime minister’s personal home went beyond the normal exercise of democratic protest. “Politicians live in the public eye, and rightly receive intense scrutiny, but their family homes should not be under assault,” said fellow Conservative parliamentarian Alicia Kearns on Twitter. “Before long Police will need to be stationed outside the home of every MP [member of Parliament].”
The British prime minister’s official residence and primary office is Number 10 Downing Street, although the officeholder also has access to a Buckinghamshire country home known as Chequers. Sunak’s privately owned manor in North Yorkshire is in the prime minister’s parliamentary constituency.
The prime minister’s office declined to comment on the record about the protest.
According to Historic England, a government body that manages the preservation of listed buildings, the secluded hamlet property — known as The Manor house — dates to 1826 and has a graduated roof of stone slate and a front door flanked by Doric columns. It is a Grade II-listed building, meaning Historic England considers it to be of special architectural or historical interest.
