CLIMATE activists super glued themselves together around the Speaker’s chair in the House of Commons today to demand action on the climate emergency and cost-of-living crisis. 

Members of Extinction Rebellion staged the protest inside the chamber in support of calls for a “citizens’ assembly” to give ordinary people the power to make decisions “that can get us out of this mess.” 

The group said three activists had entered the building with an official tour in the morning, before glueing themselves into a chain around the green leather chair used by the Commons Speaker. 

Two other activists held up banners reading “Citizens’ assemblies now” and “Let the people decide” as the protesters in the chain took it in turns to read out a speech. 

The speech said: “We are in crisis. And what goes on in this chamber every day makes a joke out of us all. We cannot afford to carry on like this.”

Outside the building, two more activists attached themselves to the gates with D-locks, while another climbed the scaffolding around the Big Ben tower and displayed a giant banner reading: “Let the people decide: citizens’ assemblies now.”

Extinction Rebellion’s Alanna Byrne said: “It is possible to change things and update politics so it really represents ordinary people.

“Independent citizens’ assemblies can show that those blocking progress in Westminster have no democratic mandate to continue destroying the environment and give power back to people.”

A Commons spokesperson said the parliamentary authorities were aware of the incident and dealing with it as a matter of urgency.