Above Photo: @JSHeappey/Flickr
Activists from the Extinction Rebellion group caused a stir in the House of Commons as they stripped off while MPs debated Brexit.
Some protesters from the climate change group glued themselves to the front of the public gallery, and they all left little to the imagination.
The Met Police said 12 arrests had been made for outraging public decency.
“Parliament just got a little more nuts,” Conservative MP James Heappey tweeted.
Parliament just got a little bit more nuts! pic.twitter.com/znZa5AndUu
— James Heappey MP (@JSHeappey) April 1, 2019
It came as Labour’s Peter Kyle opened the debate for his motion in Monday’s indicative votes.
BREAKING: Extinction Rebellion activists strip off in House of Commons public gallery to call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’ — Climate and Ecological Crisis #ExtinctionRebellion #TellTheTruth @HouseofCommons pic.twitter.com/VO8l31XRne
— Extinction Rebellion 🐝⌛️🐝 (@ExtinctionR) April 1, 2019
“This Parliament has rejected [Theresa May’s] deal again and again: 1,067 votes against this deal,” he told the House.
After the protesters made their presence known, he continued his speech with the words: “The naked truth is, Mr Speaker…”
And when a colleague made a point of order, he added: “I am grateful for the cheeky intervention…”
“He is fleshing out his argument very well,” Tory MP Justine Greening interjected.
Today in Parliament pic.twitter.com/6kOw1yD7Jf
— Rachel Humphreys (@rachel_hump) April 1, 2019
MPs were seen taking a glance up at the protest and Speaker John Bercow maintained that the debate on the second stage of the Brexit alternatives would proceed despite the distraction.
Tory Nick Boles, also speaking during the nude protest, made a joke that his Brexiteer colleagues were “noted naturists”.
“It has long been a thoroughly British trait to be able to ignore pointless nakedness, and I trust the House will be able to return to the issue that we are discussing,” he added.
Police are slowly peeling off the naked demonstrators one by one from the glass. Some popping their clothes back on. One man’s hand is very glued on.
— Kate Proctor (@KateProctorES) April 1, 2019
Some protesters, who had phrases including “climate justice now” and “eco collapse” painted on their bodies, glued their hands to the glass panel in the gallery.
Two of the group wore full grey body paint and elephant masks.
Police officers were forced to remove them, with soap spray required in some cases to peel the activists from the glass.
One bloke refusing to move. His backside still pressed firmly against the glass, and his hand apparently stuck to the glass.
— Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) April 1, 2019
Extinction Rebellion has staged huge demonstrations in London over recent months, often bringing busy roads and bridges to a standstill.
It describes itself as a non-violent direct action and civil disobedience group, and said the latest protest was an attempt to draw the attention of politicians to the “climate and ecological crisis”.
The body paint and elephant masks were used “to bring the message that politicians neglect of the climate crisis has become an elephant in the room”, a spokeswoman added.
Protester Savannah, an English literature student from Ladbroke Grove, said: “Everyone stripped and two people were elephants and had climate crisis written on them.
“We were pointing at them as the elephants in the room of the Brexit debate.”
Oliver Baines, 68, a retired charity director from Cornwall, said he was protesting to put climate change higher up the agenda.
“This is a greater national crisis than Brexit,” he added.
It comes with the Commons set to vote on four alternative plans on Monday evening, designed to establish what kind of Brexit has a chance of winning a majority among MPs.