Greenpeace protester mounts Tory bus demanding ‘clean power not Paddy Power’

A Greenpeace activist has climbed on to the Tory election battle bus to protest against the party’s environmental record.

Amy Rugg-Easey got on to the coach using a ladder as it was parked in Nottinghamshire for a planned visit by Home Secretary James Cleverly.

She unfurled a banner reading “clean power not Paddy Power”, in reference to the election date betting scandal, and stayed on the roof for 12 minutes.

Ms Rugg-Easey said she staged the action because “we deserve better than this”.

Speaking to broadcasters who had been travelling on the bus after climbing down, she said: “On climate and nature, the Conservatives are the worst out of all the parties and it’s so obvious.

“I mean, what have they been doing?

“We deserve better. We deserve better on climate and nature.”

Broken

In a statement, she added: “We’ve had enough of this Government lurching from one scandal to the next while gambling with our future. We need clean power, not Paddy Power.

“Fourteen years of Conservative governments has left this country broken.

“(Rishi) Sunak has gone backwards on climate action, ditching key pledges and promising to ‘max out’ the climate-wrecking oil and gas that are the cause of the cost-of-living crisis and our unaffordable bills.

“Our rivers are awash with sewage and our economy, NHS and public services are on their knees.

“Enough is enough. We’ve climbed on to Sunak’s battle bus today to remind the British public that it is the Conservative Government’s consistent failure to deliver greener, fairer policies that has created the mess we’re in.

“Don’t back the wrong horse – a vote for the climate is a vote for a better future.”

The Prime Minister was not travelling on the Conservative battle bus on Wednesday.

A Nottinghamshire Police vehicle and two officers appeared at the site of the campaign visit after the Greenpeace protesters had left.

Greenpeace spokesman Paul Morozzo said the protest was “legitimate and important” when asked whether sending a young woman on to the roof of the campaign bus was the right way to make the point.

He told broadcasters: “I think it’s an important way to make our point.

“We’ve only been there for a few minutes. We’ve come down, we don’t want to mess with the companies who organised the event. We’re very respectful of that.

“But in an election where the debate is so sort of poor and weak, and there’s so many lies and untruths about both the economy and climate, we think it’s legitimate and important to make our point, and in whatever way we can.”