The 1975 frontman Matt Healy has said collaborating with Swedish teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg made him realise how much criticism she receives.
Tory MP David Davies last week called the band “hypocritical” after it emerged they had recorded a track with Greta, with all proceeds going towards climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion.
Healy took to the stage at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London where The 1975 were named band of the year.
He said since the band collaborated with Thunberg, 16, they have seen “the amount of s***” she gets from critics.
Thunberg was also among the winners at the star-studded ceremony in London on Tuesday, winning GQ’s Game Changer Award after earning worldwide prominence through her efforts to raise awareness of climate change.
Last month she completed a trans-Atlantic trip on a yacht to attend a global warming conference in the United States.
She has become a symbol of a growing movement of young climate activists, leading weekly protests in Sweden that have inspired similar strikes in about 100 cities worldwide.
The letter from David Davies, the Tory member for Monmouth, mockingly asking how the group would travel around on their world tour.
Addressing their upcoming international dates, Davies asked: “Given your concern about the ‘climate emergency,’ I just wondered how you are going to get to all these places?
“Are you travelling to Asia on the Trans-Siberian Express? Or will you be travelling in a £4 million super-yacht like your mate Greta?”
Thunberg, who has Aspergers, has been the target of trolling online and addressed her critics on Twitter last weekend, writing: “When they go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go.
“And then you know you’re winning! I have Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And - given the right circumstances - being different is a superpower.”
Additional reporting by Press Association.
