Extinction Rebellion co-founder arrested after attacks on Canary Wharf banks
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook was arrested at her home this morning for conspiracy to cause criminal damage and fraud after her group attacked banks in Canary Wharf.
Activists from Extinction Rebellion smashed the window frontage of HSBC and Barclays last month.
They have also targeted Lloyd’s of London, where they dumped fake coal outside the front of the building as part of a campaign against inuring fossil fuel mining activities. The group have called their actions “Money Rebellion”.
“Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police at her home in Stroud at around 5:30am this morning for conspiracy to cause criminal damage and fraud in relation to Money Rebellion’s debt disobedience,” a spokeswoman for the group said.
Bradbrook, 49, who has a PhD in molecular biophysics, says Britain and other countries are acting too slowly to stop climate change and that the Western financial system is fuelling the abuse of the planet.
“Extinction Rebellion are entitled to their view on capitalism and climate change, but we would ask that in expressing that view they stop short of behaviour which involves criminal damage to our facilities and puts people’s safety at risk,” a Barclays spokesperson told City PM at the time.
Scrutiny on UK financial institutions is increasing ahead of the United Nations COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow later this year.
Barclays remains Europe’s biggest financier of fossil fuels and the seventh largest in the world, financing just over $118bn to the coal, oil and gas sectors in the four years since the Paris Agreement.