06 July 2023 , 09:52
1054
0
Keir Starmer's major speech on opportunity has been interrupted as one climate activist heckled the Labour leader to "stop making U-turns"
"We need a Green New deal right now," the protester, who was standing directly behind the Labour leader demanded on Thursday.
They unfurled a banner - alongside another activist from the group Green New Deal Rising group - saying: "No more U-turns. Green New Deal!"
It comes after Labour last month slammed the brakes on its flagship pledge to spend £28billion-a-year on investing in green energy projects.
In a major shift, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves admitted the 2021 commitment might not be reached until the "second half of the first Parliament" if Labour won the next election.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
(PA)Mr Starmer, who was delivering a speech setting out his final "mission" for a Labour government, asked the activists to "just let me finish and then come and talk to you about it".
Once they were escorted off stage, the Labour leader told the audience: "I think they may have missed the fact that the last mission I launched was on clean power by 2030 which is the single most effective way to get the green future that they and many others want."
In a statement student Dieudonné Bila, who was one of the protestors, said: “I disrupted Keir Starmer’s speech because I desperately want to see a future government committed to protecting people here and all over the world from the climate crisis.
"We won’t stand by and allow private companies to continue making billions as heating becomes unaffordable, or be silent in the face of extreme heat, flooding and droughts."
He added: “If Keir Starmer wants the support of young people like us he needs to set out a bold vision for the future that gets to the root causes of the problems we are facing.
"That means public ownership, wealth taxes for the 1%, permanent and progressive windfall taxes for polluters, green jobs for everyone and a National Nature Service in the first 100 days of a new Government.’
Fatima Ibrahim, Co-Director of Green New Deal Rising, added: “As young people we need politicians who will take our futures seriously and tackle the climate and economic crisis facing us all.
After his speech on Thursday the Labour leader also condemned Just Stop Oil's disruptive protests as "arrogant", saying: "I just think they need to just stop."
He added: "Particularly this last week, they've been interrupting iconic sporting events, causing massive disruption.
"There's a huge arrogance involved, that they're the only people that understand the argument, that their tactics are going to win.
Richard 'shuts up' GMB guest who says Hancock 'deserved' being called 'd***head'
"And when I put what they're doing against what we set out in our mission about clean energy, about net zero, you can see the difference between protest and power.
"Glueing yourself, interrupting, interfering with other people's lives in this arrogant way, compared with the actual change we can bring about, which is with a Labour government absolutely committed to clean power by 2030."
* Follow Mirror Politics on , , and .