DOCTORS and nurses blocked the road outside the Treasury in Westminster yesterday morning to call on the government to end its financial support for fossil fuels. 

The action by Doctors for XR, an offshoot group of Extinction Rebellion, was taken to coincide with World Health Day to highlight the “significant harm” of fossil fuel use to public health. 

Six activists locked onto oil barrels outside the main HM Treasury building on Horse Guards Road, while others held banners saying: “For health’s sake: stop financing fossil fuels,” and “Clean energy, less war.”

The group of around 50 protesters also delivered a letter to the Treasury, urging Chancellor Rishi Sunak to end the government’s financial support for fossil fuels, which they say is worth an estimated £10 billion a year. 

One of the protesters, nurse Maggie Faye, said: “We don’t want to be here protesting, but continued fossil fuel dependence threatens all of our futures, particularly the most vulnerable, including my patients, so what else am I supposed to do?”

Fossil fuel use directly harms public health through the release of toxic gases and indirectly through climate change which could see millions hit by droughts, famine and poverty, the letter adds. 

The activists said the action was in response to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report this week which warned that the window for keeping global temperature rises to safe levels is rapidly closing. 

It came as climate activists continued to target oil facilities for a seventh day in a row on Thursday, with those from the Just Stop Oil group climbed onto tankers at Kingsbury BP oil terminal near Tamworth.

Operations at the busy Navigator oil terminal in Essex remained suspended yesterday after protesters occupied the site early on Wednesday morning.