Rishi Sunak: Security for PM called into question after Greenpeace activists climb his Yorkshire home

Senior Conservative MPs have raised concerns about Rishi Sunak’s security arrangements, after a group of Greenpeace activists staged an anti-oil protest on the roof his constituency manor house.

The campaigners draped his home with an oil-black fabric at the prime minister’s North Yorkshire home to protest against the government’s plans to allow licences to be granted for further development of North Sea oil and gas.

North Yorkshire Police said the activists scaled the roof of his home at about 8am on Thursday, while Mr Sunak, his wife and children were on holiday in California, and stayed up until around 1.15pm, when they were arrested.

A former deputy chief constable from the force said it was a “major breach of security”, as he called for an “investigation into how this has been allowed to happen”.

Protester Alex Wilson said: “We’re all here because Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea while large parts of our world are literally on fire.”

Rishi Sunak takes a stroll along sun-soaked pier with family during California summer holiday

16:23 , Andy Gregory

Rishi Sunak has kicked off his summer holiday strolling along a sun-soaked pier with his family in California, reports Sophie Wingate.

The prime minister, his wife Akshata Murty, and two young daughters were pictured at an amusement park on the buzzy Santa Monica Pier on Thursday, the first day of their US trip.

Rishi Sunak takes a stroll with family during California summer holiday

‘This isn’t about the government engaging with Greenpeace,’ charity says

15:46 , Andy Gregory

Greenpeace has responded after environment secretary Therese Coffey was reported to have ordered her department to cut ties with the charity over its anti-oil protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak’s constituency home.

Greenpeace defended the protest as “entirely peaceful” and diligently planned to avoid safety risks.

The group’s UK co-executive director, Will McCallum, said: “This isn’t about the government engaging with Greenpeace, it’s about them engaging with the world around them. The planet is on fire and Rishi Sunak is acting like nothing’s happening.”

Exclusive: Chris Packham ‘surprised Rishi Sunak didn’t have more security’

15:12 , Andy Gregory

Chris Packham has said he was surprised Rishi Sunak “didn’t have more security” after Greenpeace activists scaled his home in protest over new North Sea gas and oil drillings.

Five climate protestors were arrested on Thursday after they draped a black cloth over the prime minister’s North Yorkshire manor house while he was away on holiday with his family. After climbing to the roof of the house with ladders, the activists unfurled the material and brandished a banner demanding “no new oil”.

Wildlife presenter Mr Packham defended the stunt, as questions grow about how it could have happened in the first place.

“I’m rather surprised that Mr Sunak did not have more security in place,” Mr Packham told The Independent, while he cautioned: “I sincerely hope that none of Mr Sunak’s property was damaged. No one was harmed. It was peaceful.”

My colleague Maryam Zakir-Hussain has the full exclusive report here:

Chris Packham ‘surprised Sunak didn’t have more security’ as he defends Greenpeace

Former police chief ‘astonished’ protesters were able to protest at Sunak’s home

14:35 , Andy Gregory

Peter Walker, who stepped down as North Yorkshire Police’s deputy chief constable in 2003, said he was “absolutely astonished” that protesters gained access to Rishi Sunak’s house, as he called for an investigation.

He told LBC: “It is clearly in my view a major breach of security.”

Watch: Tory minister appears to concede Labour will win next general election

14:07 , Andy Gregory

Opinion | Politics is about to get truly ugly as Sunak pollutes climate change debate

13:39 , Andy Gregory

Rishi Sunak has “announced a plan to max out on North Sea oil and gas – granting hundreds of new licences for exploration and production while winking at the political editors that this was part of an aggressive new ‘divide and rule’ strategy in the wake of the Uxbridge by-election, writes Alan Rusbridger.

Brace yourself to be drowned by a year of headlines about migrants, trans rights and crime. They are classic “wedge issues”, the unlovely Australian political tactic devised to bludgeon ugly election wins.

But climate change? Isn’t Sunak bigger than to make this most critical of causes the latest front in the culture wars? Apparently not.

Read his thoughts in full here:

Alan Rusbridger | The Independent

Greenpeace has received ‘both kinds of opinions’ over protest at Sunak’s home

13:05 , Andy Gregory

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace, said the group has received “both kinds of opinions” online since its protest at Rishi Sunak’s constituency home.

She told Sky News: “Protests are disruptive by nature, for the amount of comments that we have received online saying we don’t agree with you, an equal amount of people are saying ‘this was brilliant, you made your point, it was peaceful, it didn’t disrupt normal people’s everyday lives, you took it to the home of the decision maker’.

“So there’s both kinds of opinions, also, it’s important to remember that this is just one tactic that organisation like Greenpeace use, I often describe Greenpeace as a Swiss army knife.”

She added: “I think the point that we want to make is Rishi Sunak needs to be held accountable for this decision and we need to hold politicians accountable when they make terrible decisions like these.”

Exclusive: Chris Packham accuses Sunak of playing ‘political football’ with green policies

12:28 , Andy Gregory

Chris Packham has accused Rishi Sunak of using the environment as a “political football” as he issues a stark warning to the government’s “astonishing and disappointing” oil and sea agenda.

The wildlife presenter and naturalist has given the major political parties an ultimatum to stop sanctioning future licensing of oil and gas or risk losing votes in a new campaign he launches today.

My colleague Maryam Zakir-Hussain has his exclusive remarks here:

Chris Packham accuses Sunak of playing ‘political football’ with green policies

Watch: Hunt recognises 'worry for families' as he reacts to Bank of England rate rise

11:59 , Andy Gregory

Calls to review Rishi Sunak’s security arrangements after climate protesters scale his home

11:37 , Andy Gregory

Questions have been raised about the prime minister's security arrangements after Greenpeace activists scaled his home in protest at new fossil fuels drilling, our policy correspondent Jon Stone reports.

Health minister Maria Caulfield said on Friday that it would not be “responsible” for her to comment on Rishi Sunak’s security arrangements, as police said there was “no threat to the wider public” from the demonstration.

But former home secretary Priti Patel urged her successor Suella Braverman to launch an immediate review into the PM’s security arrangements.

“This raises some very serious questions around how the home of a sitting prime minister has been accessed in this way, to the extent that political campaigners and activists have been able to trespass on his property and physically gain access,” she told the Daily Mail newspaper.

And former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he believed security “doesn’t seem to know how to protect the house of the Prime Minister”, adding: “There has to be an inquiry into what the hell was going on.”

Calls to review Rishi Sunak’s security arrangements after Greenpeace protest

Protest was ‘carefully and meticulously’ planned, says Greenpeace

11:15 , Andy Gregory

Greenpeace has said it planned its protest “carefully and meticulously” and would not have done it if Rishi Sunak was there.

Areeba Hamid, co-executive director of Greenpeace, told Sky News the protest was “proportionate response to a disastrous decision” by the PM to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea.

“It was an empty home, the fact that he wasn’t there was actually national news, everybody knows that he wasn’t there,” said Ms Hamid.

“We made sure, in fact we wouldn’t have done it if he was there because our intention was to draw attention to the fact that what he’s doing on climate is actually a big disaster, rather than to talk about his family or where he lives, so that was the entire point.

“Security is a big part of whatever we do, we planned it carefully and meticulously, we knew he wasn’t going to be there.

“We knocked on the door to make sure that there was nobody there, initially there was no response, then we got a response, we told them who we were. So this was quite a peaceful, calm thing to make a very important point.”

Tory minister appears to concede Labour will win next election

10:42 , Andy Gregory

A Conservative government minister has appeared to concede that Labour will win the next election during an appearance on TV news.

Maria Caulfield was accused of a “poor choice of words” after seemingly painting a Labour victory at the next election as an inevitability.

Speaking on Sky News the health minister said people would be afraid of what Labour would do “when they get into government”.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more:

Tory minister appears to concede Labour will win next election

Sadiq Khan’s Ulez support has ‘not touched the sides’, claims minister

10:14 , Andy Gregory

Sadiq Khan’s announcement of financial support to ease the impact of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) has “not touched the sides”, a health minister has said.

Maria Caulfield told Sky News: “I don’t think it touched the sides of people’s concerns. I think he’s reacting to why Labour didn’t win the Uxbridge by-election. £2,000 is nothing if you’re having to replace your car.”

MPs’ security ‘always a concern’, says minister

09:48 , Andy Gregory

The security of MPs is “always a concern”, health minister Maria Caulfield has said, when asked about protesters targeting Rishi Sunak’s home.

Ms Caulfield told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “MPs overall do have security concerns.

“We’re coming up in October to two years since our good colleague Sir David Amess was murdered, so yes, security around MPs is always a concern.”

Tory minister speaks of ‘when Labour get into government’

09:20 , Andy Gregory

Health minister Maria Caulfield has claimed that people are worried about what will happen with London’s ultra-low emission zone “when [Labour] get into government”.

She was picked up on the apparent mistake by Sky News presenter Anna Jones, who said: “You said when Labour get into government, I assume you mean if they get into government?”

“Well absolutely, that’s the concern that people have,” Ms Caulfield replied.

People should be ‘proud’ of Sunak roof protest, says XR activist

09:02 , Andy Gregory

People should be “proud” of the Greenpeace protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak’s constituency manor house, a climate activist from another campaign group has said.

Jon Fuller, of Extinction Rebellion, told LBC: “I do think it is a very, very sad situation we’ve got ourselves into here where this actually happens and people feel that it’s necessary.”

He added: “We are seeing an awful lot of damage being done to property because of climate change. So people are going to get frightened, young people are very frightened indeed.

“They see on the government’s website this message of adapt or die, and they see the government isn’t adapting, so that fear just grows and grows. So what are people supposed to do? I think we should be proud of them because they’re not violent.”

‘Unsackable’ Jeremy Hunt to remain chancellor as Rishi Sunak eyes ‘election-ready’ Cabinet reshuffle

08:47 , Andy Gregory

“Unsackable” Jeremy Hunt looks set to stay as chancellor as Rishi Sunak eyes a Cabinet reshuffle while striving desperately to cut inflation eating into cash-strapped households’ budgets.

Mr Sunak is understood to be weighing up whether to “signpost” future tax cuts in the autumn – being aware of the need for a significant “gear change” despite being insistent that there will be no tax cuts this year, the paper reports.

Talk of a reshuffle first began in the run-up to last month’s triple by-election challenge sparked by Boris Johnson’s exit from parliament. The Tories lost two of three seats after defence secretary Ben Wallace announced his intention to leave politics at the next election.

Mr Sunak is expected to make limited changes, according to The Times, which links Michael Gove to the role of health secretary and reports that the PM is keen to promote “rising stars” to the lower ranks of ministers of state, in an attempt to build a new-look “election-ready” Cabinet.

‘Unsackable’ Hunt to remain chancellor as Sunak eyes ‘election-ready’ Cabinet shuffle

Concerns raised about ‘major breach of security'

08:20 , Sam Rkaina

Mr Sunak, the MP for nearby Richmond, this week announced plans to “max out” the UK’s oil and gas reserves by granting more than 100 new licences for extraction in the North Sea.

Protester Alex Wilson, who lives in Newcastle with her partner, who was also on the roof, released a video message from the scene of the protest, saying: “We’re all here because Rishi Sunak has opened the door to a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea while large parts of our world are literally on fire.

“This will be a disaster for the climate.”

On the ground, Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Philip Evans defended the action at the Prime Minister’s family home.

He told the PA news agency the group had knocked on the door when they arrived and said “this is a peaceful protest”, but there was no answer.

Asked whether it was intrusive to target someone’s home, Mr Evans said: “This is the Prime Minister. He is the one that was standing in Scotland going to drill for every last drop of oil while the world is burning.”

Peter Walker, who stepped down as North Yorkshire Police’s deputy chief constable in 2003, said he was “absolutely astonished” the protesters gained access to the house, as he called for an investigation.

He told LBC radio: “It is clearly in my view a major breach of security.”

Greenpeace activists released on bail

08:19 , Sam Rkaina

A group of Greenpeace activists arrested following an anti-oil protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak’s constituency manor house have been released while inquiries continue, police have said.

North Yorkshire Police, who have come under criticism following the security breach at the Prime Minister’s grade II-listed mansion in Kirby Sigston on Thursday, said their investigation “remains ongoing”.

The campaigners draped his home with an oil-black fabric to protest against the Government’s plans to allow licences to be granted for further development of North Sea oil and gas.

They scaled the roof of his home at about 8am on Thursday, while Mr Sunak, his wife and children were on holiday in California, and stayed up until around 1.15pm, when they were arrested.

The force said: “All five suspects who were arrested following the protest in Kirby Sigston on August 3 have been released on conditional police bail to allow for further inquiries to be carried out.

“The investigation remains ongoing.”

Assistant Chief Constable Elliot Foskett said: “There was no threat to the wider public throughout this incident, which has now been brought to a safe conclusion.”

But a former deputy chief constable from the force said it was a “major breach of security”, as he called for an “investigation into how this has been allowed to happen”.