Diane Abbott has said Extinction Rebellion activists who blocked the delivery of millions of newspapers are “not criminals” but “protesters acting in the tradition of the suffragettes”. The former Shadow Home Secretary said the newspapers targeted were not complaining about “far right activists” using the same “legal tactics” to blockade the Port of Dover in anti-immigration protests, which is “far more damaging”. Speaking about the black lives matter movement, she called on the government to reduce the number of “random stop and searches” that “disproportionately affect black people”.
Diane Abbott: It would be ‘ridiculous’ to reclassify Extinction Rebellion as organised crime group
