Sir Keir Starmer today admitted he had still not spoken to Labour MPs Dawn Butler and Diane Abbott about their apparent support of Extinction Rebellion’s newspaper blockade.
The Labour leader said the climate change protest group’s actions were “counterproductive” after they blockaded presses including The Times, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times earlier this month.
However, two of his own MPs spoke out in support of the group including former shadow home secretary Ms Abbott who said direct action was a “legal tactic” and compared them to the Suffragettes.
Former shadow equalities minister Ms Butler tweeted: “Bravo Extinction Rebellion. Excellent work.”
Asked if he had spoken to either of them, Sir Keir replied: “I haven’t directly spoken to either of them about it and I just disagree with them.
“Obviously people will have different opinions but my strong opinion is this was counterproductive, it was wrong.”
At his monthly half-hour phone-in on LBC, Sir Keir was also asked about criticism that he’d been too slow to criticise the protest.
He replied: “No, that’s rubbish. The Labour Party put out a line on the Saturday morning. I in fact put out a line myself anyway. It’s ridiculous to suggest the Labour party line isn’t my line I obviously agreed that line.”
Sir Keir said he suspects the protest had made people “less sympathetic” than they were before, adding: “The tactics and action of Extinction Rebellion, particularly blockading newspapers was just wrong in my view and counterproductive. A free press is the cornerstone of our democracy and people should be able to read the newspaper they want to read. I actually think it was counterproductive. I think it put more people off than brought people on.”
XR targeted the printing plants at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, Knowsley in Merseyside, and near Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, stopping some readers getting their newspapers.
The demonstrators have accused newspapers of failing to report on climate change.
