Sir Edward Leigh, MP, speaks out over recent actions of rebellion activists

This is an extremist organisation which is fomenting disruption at a time of serious economic uncertainty. They have abused the trust of well-intentioned people who want to care for and conserve our environment by spreading mistruths and effective lives.

Beneath the cloak of green environmentalism lies an openly admitted opposition to our parliamentary democracy and, as their actions have shown, hostility to the freedoms people in Lincolnshire and across the United Kingdom have enjoyed for centuries.

As the recent disruption to the newspaper supply chain demonstrated, this is not just a London problem.

The Lincolnshire branch of Extinction Rebellion foments climate alarmism that is not backed up by any scientific evidence whatsoever.

For example, they claim it’s predicted that the United Kingdom’s fertile farming soil will run out completely within 60 years. But it is only certain parts of the UK where this threat is even a possibility. And action to prevent this isn’t just possible: it’s already underway.

When Michael Gove was environment secretary, he decided to attack this problem head on and helped launch the Sustainable Soils Alliance to increase awareness of soil issues and help farmers to improve practice of environmental land management.

Meanwhile, here in Lincolnshire, the RSA helped establish the Food, Farming, and Countryside Commission, which undertook a locally-led inquiry into sustainable soil practice and promotion in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Agri-Food Technology.

Now that we have left the European Union and are crafting an agriculture policy that is specially tailored to the needs, opportunities, and challenges of Great Britain, we have a chance to tackle threats to soil fertility even more.

A free society and parliamentary democracy aren’t perfect, and no one is pretending they are. But they are the most effective and balanced ways of approaching these problems as opposed to the anti-scientific totalitarian regime which Extinction Rebellion proposes.

Our country used to have a severe problem with football hooliganism, but a determined Conservative government met the challenge head-on and hooliganism has been severely reduced to a level of unimportance.

I will continue to pressure the Government to do to Extinction Rebellion what we did to football hooliganism and eradicate this genuine threat to our peaceful and democratic way of life.

We can preserve democracy and defend soil fertility to ensure Lincolnshire continues to be the breadbasket of England for centuries to come.