Nicola Sturgeon has been accused by Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid of giving Extinction Rebellion the "green light" to protest during COP26 in Glasgow.
The First Minister appeared on the hit ITV show this morning to talk about the climate conference which got underway yesterday.
World leaders have already started to arrive at the SEC for the summit which takes place over the next two days.
Sturgeon backed the right to protest during the United Nations conference, however Reid accused her of allowing the climate activists who block roads and protest outside buildings to take to the streets of Glasgow.
The SNP leader said: "Protest has a really important place in any democracy.
“Protests are there to get noticed and to shake leaders like me out of what people perceive as a sense of complacency.
“United Nations encourages protests around the COP summits in order that the voices of those who sometimes aren’t heard get heard loudly and clearly.
“What I would say to any organisation is that they should protest that is a right and a democracy, but it’s in nobody’s interest if the conversations can’t go ahead.
"What I’d say to people in terms of disruption, I don’t condone violence or protests that are designed to cause damage to people or to communities.
“Remember, this city, the people of this city in order to host COP are already suffering some inconvenience and disruption over the next couple of weeks try not to add that.
“But of course, protest is important, and I think we’ll see lots of peaceful democratic protests in Glasgow over the next two weeks"
Reid interrupted to ask: "So you are giving the green light to the Extinction Rebellion protesters then up there in Glasgow?"
Sturgeon replied: "If you’re going to try and oversimplify what I said rather than listen to the nuance of what I said, then fair enough."
Reid said: "No, I heard you say as long as they don’t cause damage, of course.
"But it’s a tricky situation because you spend tens of millions of pounds on security, you already said that there has to be quite a lot of activity to make people wake up and realise the oncoming emergency.
"It’s hard not to oversimplify that."
Sturgeon continuing: “I’m saying that I do support in any democracy the right of people protest.
“I stress peaceful protest, I have been on many peaceful democratic protests in this city over my many years in politics.
“But I also said that I don’t condone behaviour that causes damage to people, to communities, and I’ve also said please don’t cause additional disruption to the people of this city."
Reid asked: “Do you think that sitting in front of cars on busy roads in rush hours causes damage to people and communities, or is that peaceful protest?”
Sturgeon replied: “Personal view, I mean that’s not for me to say exactly what every protest is categorised as that’s for those policing the protests.
“Personal view, I think we need to take people with us to in this journey towards net-zero. I think we need to get people across the country, across the world, bought into the difficult things we need to do.
“Yes, protests are getting noticed about making sure leaders wake up and do what needs to be done I think there is a question about whether protests that cause disruption in peoples everyday lives are counterproductive or not.
“It’s those organising these protests that have to make these judgements in my position my responsibility is to make sure my government is taking the actions that are matching the scale of the challenge we are facing."
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