Naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham gives a speech in London (Image: Getty)
Downing Street has insisted it is “irresponsible” to encourage protests outside MPs' homes following Chris Packham’s defence of Just Stop Oil.
The broadcaster said the climate activists have the right to non-violent protest at elected officials’ home addresses.
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But the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "It is clearly irresponsible to encourage people to protest at the home address of MPs, which is exactly why the defending democracy policing protocol agreed last week that any protests at the home of MPs will be considered intimidatory and police will use their powers to direct protestors away from them."
Mr Packham, 62, said that the right of protesters to target the homes of MPs should be “preserved”.
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He added: “If this is a peaceful, non-violent demonstration then we in the UK – for all the laws that have been radically changed in very recent times – have to preserve that right to protest. We’ve got a law out there, it needs to be applied equally to everyone.”
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The conservationist’s comments came as Rishi Sunak warned that “mob rule” was a threat to the country as protests over the conflict in Gaza continue.
Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “I think that we need a portfolio of protests, basically, because we need a radical flank and Just Stop Oil are seen by many as that radical flank.
“They are the people who in some people’s minds go a step too far. And that might be, you know, standing outside an MP’s house.
“But the fact is that they are motivated, as I am by a manifest fear for the health of our future. And that is on a foundation of understanding of very good science. We listen to the science. The science tells us we have to act.”
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Labour MP Steve McCabe said it is wrong to suggest that protests outside MPs’ homes are legitimate.
He said: “I think that is a massive intrusion. What a person does in their public life should be open to criticism and interrogation. People are entitled to and particularly their families, are entitled to a degree of privacy. So, I don't know that I would find that acceptable myself.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned on Friday that democracy is being targeted by extremists and there were “forces here at home trying to tear us apart”.
In an address to the nation from Downing Street, the Conservative Party leader urged protesters to prevent extremists from infiltrating their ranks and warned of more stringent policing.
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Conservative backbencher Tobias Ellwood’s home was targeted last month by pro-Palestine protesters.
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The family homes of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer have also been set upon by environmental activists in past months.
Two serving MPs, Labour’s Jo Cox and Conservative Sir David Amess, have been murdered in the past eight years, with reforms to the security of parliamentarians having been introduced as a result of those killings.
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