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Labour HQ blocked by climate campaigners

LABOUR headquarters was blockaded by green campaigners today in protest at the party’s ties to major polluters.

Fifty activists from Stop Polluting Politics blocked both entrances to the office in London, arguing that funding from polluting corporations is to blame for Labour’s abandonment of its green investment promises.

Protesters chanted: “Labour, come off it, put people over profit” and carried banners reading: “Labour: Party of the People Polluters.”

Labour has received £41,600 from donors that are linked to pollution, including £9,600 from aviation giant Airbus and £12,000 from biomass corporation Drax since 2019. 

Drax owns the largest single source of carbon emissions, a wood-burning power station, in Britain.

And Labour has stuck with Graham Stringer as a parliamentary candidate in Manchester despite his record as a climate change denier associated with the Global Warming Policy Foundation, with which shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves also has links.

Sam Smith, a spokesman for the group, said: “Allowing polluters to sponsor major political parties is as destructive as having tobacco companies fund research on smoking and public health.

“How can we trust a party that takes money from environment-wrecking corporations like Drax or Airbus to deliver a sustainable, worker-led green transition?

“By accepting their donations, Labour is selling out to the companies hurtling us towards a suffocating future.

“After 14 years of watching Big Oil lobbyists prowl Westminster under Tories, we deserve better.”

Mr Smith said that the general election on July 4 is “a vital opportunity to break the money pipeline.”

“We demand that Labour commit to banning donations from polluters and put a stop to the toxic lobbying,” he added.

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