Jail selfish eco-protesters who repeatedly break law for longer, demand MPs after yob disrupts snooker in latest stunt
SELFISH eco-protesters who repeatedly break the law should be locked up for longer, MPs demanded yesterday.
The call came after toff student Edred Whittingham, 25, halted the World Snooker Championships with an orange paint stunt.
The venture capitalist’s son is a serial offender.
As eco yobs threatened to wreck more sporting events, PM Rishi Sunak said they should be “ashamed” of themselves.
The PM hit out after activist groups inflicted chaos on the snooker and Grand National — and threatened even more disruption this summer.
Mr Sunak told the Sun: “People who disrupt decent, law-abiding people’s lives, trying to gratuitously ruin great sporting events that many have worked hard and saved to enjoy should be ashamed of their selfish behaviour.”
Posh Just Stop Oil protester Edred Whittingham caused outrage on Monday when he climbed on to a table and threw orange powder paint at the World Snooker Championships in Sheffield.
The group has refused to rule out ruining other huge events like the FA Cup Final and Wimbledon.
Saturday’s Grand National saw 118 animal rights protesters arrested for trying to halt the race.
MPs are enraged that eco campaigners break the law, but are repeatedly freed by the police and courts to commit further offences.
They want them banned from events like football hooligans, or given longer prison sentences.
Mr Sunak added: “Last year, the Government introduced new laws to crack down on this reckless behaviour but more is needed.
“That’s why we are pressing ahead with our Public Order Bill.
“Of course we must protect the right to peaceful protest, but that cannot be at the expense of the hard-working majority trying to go about their lives as normal.”
Exeter University student Whittingham, whose dad is a venture capitalist, has been arrested six times and jailed once for protests.
He spent a week in prison for blockading Kingsbury oil terminal, Warwickshire, last September.
Last June, he sprayed red paint on the Treasury in London.
Two months ago he was slapped with a community order for a tunnel demo near an oil terminal in Grays, Essex.
And he was arrested after he glued his hand to a painting at Manchester Art Gallery last July.
On his website, Whittingham asks supporters to pay him up to £50 a month to fund his protests.
He wrote: “Help me stay afloat and stop this!
“My living costs are quite low, and any support you can offer means I can focus on my activism rather than needing to get a job in a pub!”
He has previously said he is opposed to having children on moral grounds because he believes there is no guarantee that there will be a habitable planet for them to grow up in.
Dad Jerel, 60, is listed as a venture capitalist at Companies House and is on the board of directors for Kromek, a firm which makes radiation detectors for the nuclear industry.
The family home in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, is worth up to £800,000.
Rich donors are behind groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
Aileen Getty, granddaughter of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty, co-founded and gave millions of pounds to the non-profit Climate Emergency Fund which partially funds both groups.
Snooker star Joe Perry, whose match was halted by Whittingham’s protest, said jail terms should be longer.
He told TalkTV: “What he’s been punished so far has not stopped him from continuing.
“But then if he’s that intent on protesting, is anything going to stop him?”
Tory MP David Morris added: “Judges must no longer hand out soft sentences to these eco zealots who are hellbent on disrupting events that millions of people enjoy.
“If they are not punished, we are giving them a licence to carry on and on.”
Former World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn told talkSPORT: “Sport is an easy target.
“How long before The Open or Wimbledon or whatever?
“We are such a soft touch as a nation — smack their wrists, give them a small fine, maybe a bit of community hours, a month in prison.
“It’s a ludicrous situation.
“The problem is there’s not enough deterrent out there.”
Former Home Office Minister Kevin Foster said the protesters were not endearing themselves to the public and were alienating people from the causes they want to promote.
Ex-Cabinet Minister David Jones called for sporting venues to share information.
Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said: “Middle-class criminals shouldn’t be seen to be getting away with it when they have committed previous offences.”
But Tory sources hit out at Labour, saying they had voted against the Public Order Bill proposals.
They pointed to Sir Keir Starmer speaking up for Extinction Rebellion protests last year.
Police are probing the snooker security breach at the Crucible Theatre where front-row seats cost £650.
Whittingham staged his protest with Margaret Reid, 52.
Referee Olivier Marteel stopped Reid, a former National Trust manager of Kendal, Cumbria, glueing herself to the second table.
The protest pair were released on bail until June 15.
The World Snooker Tour has beefed up security.
Asked if they were planning to target more sporting events this summer, Just Stop Oil said: “As far as we’re concerned, all tactics are on the table.
“The disruption will end as soon as the Government makes a meaningful statement to halt any new licensing or consent to any new fossil fuel exploration.”
Extinction Rebellion has promised not to disrupt Sunday’s London Marathon.
- Additional reporting by Paul Sims and Eleanor Sharples