UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday branded as "irresponsible crusties," the Insulate Britain protesters who have been blocking roads in and around London to draw the government's attention to the need to insulate and retrofit homes across the UK.
"There are some people, Nick, who call those individuals 'legitimate protesters.' They're not. I think they are irresponsible crusties who are basically trying to stop people going about their day's work and doing considerable damage to the economy," Johnson told LBC radio host Nick Ferrari at the Conservative Party annual conference taking place in Manchester.
On Monday, climate protesters from Insulate Britain brought traffic to a standstill in several parts of London, after previously causing havoc on three busy highways encircling London and the road leading to the Port of Dover in southern England.
The group have been staging their sit-down demonstrations on main roads for the last three weeks in spite of the government threatening them with prison terms and hefty fines.
Insulate Britain, which claims that the £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) announced by the government is only 0.2% of what is needed to properly insulate the 29 million homes in the UK, has said that 8,500 deaths in an average UK winter are a result of cold homes and that thousands of families "have to choose between heating and eating." (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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