Protestors from South East Cornwall are among hundreds to have been arrested during the first days of a planned two weeks of climate change action in London.

Activitsts with Extinction Rebellion (XR) have been demonstrating at key locations in the capital including outside the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence, and roads have been blocked in areas including Whitehall and Westminster Bridge.

Lambeth Bridge has been the gathering point for XR groups from the South West.

One local protestor who is in London today said: ‘I am here for my daughter, who is three, and is never going to be able to remember the world the way that I do, and for her future.

‘I am doing it for my patients, because I work in health care and it’s going to be a global health crisis that will affect us all. And I am doing it for the beauty of all the things I see around me that I feel an overwhelming need to protect, in the face of something we are heading towards, whether we are honest with ourselves about it or not.

‘People here didn’t want to break the law, but having waited so long, what other ways are there to make Governments take action now, while there is still the slimmest of time windows left open for us to walk through to a sustainable world.’

Vegetables from Keveral Community Farm in Downderry and Good Earth Growers as well as blankets, towels and other supplies have been delivered from South East Cornwall to the demonstrators in London.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been widely criticised for his comments referring to the protestors as ‘uncooperative crusties’. Activists from Cornwall include people of all ages and walks of life including retired doctors, parish and Cornwall Council members and working professionals.

Prospective parliamentary candidate for SE Cornwall and Councillor Colin Martin said that ‘Mr Johnson’s dismissive comment shows that he does not take the climate emergency seriously’.

‘He cannot see the environmental catastrophe which is happening before our eyes’.

Boris Johnson’s father Stanley, who joined Extinction Rebellion demonstrations in London this week, has stated that his son’s comments were ’made in humour’ and that the whole Johnson family is united over the issue of climate change.