Revealed: Eco-protestors who stormed Liz Truss’s Tory leadership hustings are globe-trotters who’ve clocked up thousands of miles visiting Malaga, Marseille, Prague, Slovenia, Tanzania, Canada, Djibouti, South Africa and Brussels
- EXCLUSIVE: Green New Deal protestors who heckled Liz Truss accused of racking up thousands of airmiles
- Fatima-Zahra Ibrahim, co-organiser of Green New Deal Rising, had long-haul trips to African continent
- Ms Ibrahim later boasted of ‘ruining’ the Tory leadership hustings event in Eastbourne, East Sussex
- Student Sarah Noles screamed that Ms Truss had ‘no credible plan’ and has backed radical climate policies
- But her own social media page shows off a past of extravagant travel, including trips to Tanzania and Canada
Two eco-activists who slammed Liz Truss at a hustings event are today unveiled as avid globe-trotters who have racked up thousands of carbon polluting airmiles themselves, MailOnline can reveal.
The Foreign Secretary snapped back at the eco-warriors at the speech in Eastbourne, who could be heard shouting ‘shame’ and calling for a Green New Deal to be implemented by a new Prime Minister.
Student Sarah Noles screamed at the Tory leadership frontrunner and accused her of having ‘no credible plan’. Ms Noles has shared her backing for new, radical policies to tackle climate change on her Twitter account.
But her social media pages are also adorned with exotic holiday pictures from locations thousands of miles away including Canada. Other images show her sipping cocktails in Spain and lapping up the sun on safari in Tanzania.
If Ms Noles flew to each of the destinations shared on her social media she would have piled up more than 22,000 airmiles alone.
Fatima-Zahra Ibrahim, a law graduate and co-director of Green New Deal Rising, was the first to rise to her feet when she denounced Ms Truss and said she should feel ‘ashamed’ at last night’s event. Ms Ibrahim later boasted of ‘ruining’ the Tory leadership debate with her brief stunt.
The eco-zealot, who describes herself as climate activist online, is understood to have travelled to the African nation of Djibouti in the past, which would be around a 7,300 mile roundtrip via plane.
One image shared online shows her grinning widely while enjoying a football match in Durban, South Africa while she also shared pictures of her attending a United Nations eco conference in Germany.
A return economy flight to Djibouti would have released 1.9 tons of carbon dioxide into the environment, while a return ticket from South Africa generate 3.1 tons.
Student Sarah Noles screamed at the Tory leadership frontrunner and accused her of having ‘no credible plan’ to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and climate change. Her own social media pages are also adorned with exotic holiday pictures from locations thousands of miles away, including Canada and Tanzania
Other images show eco-protestor Sarah Noles sipping cocktails in Spain and lapping up the sun on safari in Tanzania
Among the glamorous locations shared on Ms Noles’s social media page include Lake Bled, a popular location for influencers in Slovenia
Fatima-Zahra Ibrahim (pictured), a law graduate and co-director of Green New Deal Rising, was the first to rise to her feet when she denounced Ms Truss and said she should feel ‘ashamed’ at last night’s event
One image shared online shows her grinning widely while enjoying a football match in Durban, South Africa (above) while she also shared pictures of her attending a United Nations eco conference in Germany
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Ms Ibrahim, who is based in London, is a law graduate from the University of Hull.
She later read labour, social movements and development at SOAS University of London before helping found Green New Deal Rising in 2019.
Her past jobs include working for NGOs and a movement that rallies support for refugees, anti-pollution campaigns and more by EU citizens.
She has also been linked with prior climate protest groups, including the People’s Climate March and the UK Youth Climate Coalition.
Meanwhile, Ms Noles studies Media, Campaigning and Social Change at the University of Westminster.
If they flew to every destination listed on their social media pages, they would have collectively netted more than 30,000 air miles.
The pair were just two of the five protestors who were kicked out after heckling and posing as Conservative Party members at Miss Truss’s leadership hustings in Eastbourne, East Sussex, yesterday.
The demonstrators angrily shouted ‘shame on you’ during her opening remarks, calling for a ‘Green New Deal’ and claiming to have the support of the majority of the British public. Tory members in the audience could be heard chanting ‘out, out, out!’
After the initial wave of protesters interrupted the hustings, another disruptor infiltrated the arena and was removed.
Ms Truss last night threw down the gauntlet and said if she was made Prime Minister she would stop the likes of these protesters and vowed to clamp down on them immediately if she wins the leadership.
‘I would legislate immediately to make sure that we are standing up to militant trade unions who stop ordinary commuters getting into work’, she told the Tory members in attendance.
‘And I would legislate to protect our essential services. I will make sure that militant activists such as Extinction Rebellion are not able to disrupt ordinary people who work hard and do the right thing and go into work.
‘And I will never ever ever allow our democracy to be disrupted by unfair protests.’
The frontrunner then quipped that she was ‘popular with Extinction Rebellion’ after the eco-warriors did not heckle Mr Sunak.
The protesters were from Green New Deal Rising, a youth climate group, and they said: ‘This is a critical moment for our country. Our next Prime Minister should be responding to what the majority wants, which is good wages, secure jobs and a safe climate.
‘But Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are clogging up the airwaves with policies that will make things worse, not better.
‘Energy bills are set to rise to over £3000 a year and nothing they have announced will come anywhere near putting that money back in people’s pockets.
‘We disrupted the hustings tonight to send a clear message that we are the majority and we are rising up.’
‘Liz Truss is leading in the polls and is likely to become the next Prime Minister but she has nothing credible to say in response to the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis. The UK just experienced record breaking heat waves and energy giants are raking in billions of profit whilst every day people are pushed further into poverty as prices soar and wages stagnate.
‘As young people who are scared for our futures, we desperately need a Green New Deal and political leadership to meet this moment of crisis rather than this sideshow.’
The clip shows Ms Patel donning a pink dress as she approaches the podium at the Bassetlaw Conservatives Spring Dinner
Eco-warrior Ben Mitchell (far fight) poses for a selfie with Priti Patel and another demonstrator while posing as a Tory at the local Conservatives dinner on Friday night
This protestor branded Priti Patel’s Rwanda immigration policy ‘inhumane’ as she interrupted a speech at a local Tory dinner
Activists with Green New Deal Rising have previously hit high-profile Tory events, challenging Rishi Sunak’s green credentials and Priti Patel’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
In one clip shared in May, Ms Patel dons a pink dress as she approaches the podium to give her speech before she is interrupted by a group of eco-zealots.
Just seconds after introducing herself and welcoming the crowd, a female protestor suddenly jolted up from her chair and said: ‘Priti Patel your racist policies are killing people.
‘Your plans to send people seeking asylum to Rwanda are inhumane, they’re inhumane and are going to ruin people’s lives.’
The demonstrator is then escorted by security, but then another woman stands up from her chair and continues the protest, saying young people are ‘disgusted’ by the controversial immigration policy.
As she is ushered out, yet another protestor gets up and brands the policy ‘cruel’, before they all begin chanting: ‘Out, out, out!’
Last night’s disruption came as Mr Sunak continues to struggle to make up ground on his leadership rival – who has made her own gaffe about northern areas in the campaign – in the race to become the Tory leader and PM.
Mr Sunak came under fire from Tories and Labour yesterday after he was recorded saying he had been working to divert funding from ‘deprived urban areas’ towards prosperous towns.
The former chancellor was filmed bragging that he had started changing public funding formulas when he was chancellor to ensure more prosperous towns receive ‘the funding they deserve’.
Responding to the furore, Mr Sunak said: ‘I wanna level up everywhere, and as you may have seen from a video clip that is online, I don’t believe that’s just about our very large urban cities’
Mr Sunak is trailing Ms Truss significantly in the polls and many have suggested he has already lost the contest
Responding to the furore, Mr Sunak said: ‘I wanna level up everywhere, and as you may have seen from a video clip that is online, I don’t believe that’s just about our very large urban cities.
‘I believe that’s about investing in and leveling up small towns in rural communities, in coastal communities like those here in the south-east.’
The intervention garnered applause from the watching Conservative members despite widespread backlash to his earlier remarks.
The former chancellor was filmed bragging that he had started changing public funding formulas when he was chancellor to ensure places like Tunbridge Wells receive ‘the funding they deserve’.
The New Statesman magazine, which obtained video revealing Mr Sunak’s remarks, said they were made to grassroots Tories in the Kent town on July 29.
It promoted criticism, with Foreign Office minister Lord Zac Goldsmith – a close ally of Boris Johnson – saying: ‘This is one of the weirdest – and dumbest – things I’ve ever heard from a politician.’
Jake Berry, the chairman of the Northern Research Group of Tory MPs, said that in public Mr Sunak ‘claims he wants to level up the North, but here, he boasts about trying to funnel vital investment away from deprived areas’.
‘He says one thing and does another – from putting up taxes to trying to block funding for our armed forces and now levelling up,’ the Truss supporter said.
But his supporters insisted he was talking about moving money from big cities to smaller urban areas, one of the key aims of levelling up.
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said’ Strangely enough, most Red Wall areas that voted Conservative for the first time in 2019 – who have been left behind for decades -aren’t urban/city areas. Exactly the whole point of levelling up.
‘They should post the full clip, which would show Rishi Sunak talk about the local council funding formula and how it discriminated against non metropolitan areas in favour of cities – by giving them less money for things like adult and children services, highways and fire.’
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