Extinction Rebellion protest: Police finally get organised as pink boat sails for eco warriors

Police officers removed a pink boat left in Oxford Circus by climate change protesters on Friday after admitting they had finally “come up with a strategy”, five days after parts of London were left paralysed.

Shortly after Dame Emma Thompson, the actress, had addressed the crowd from the flag-draped vessel, specialist officers moved in and began to clear the area, cutting off the sound system and carrying activists away from the scene.

The escalation of force followed criticism that Scotland Yard had failed to deal adequately with the Extinction Rebellion demonstration, which has blocked transport hubs and taken over busy thoroughfares in the capital.

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, admitted it had taken several days to form an appropriate policy to deal with the largely middle-class, non-violent activists because it was an “alien” situation.

“We have come up with a formula and a strategy and are now fully prepared,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“It took a while but it’s a very difficult situation and we had to get it right. We didn’t want to be disproportionate but we’re in a better place now.

“These people are from suburbia. They are saying: ‘Please be careful when you put the handcuffs on’. We are usually rolling around on the floor having to fight people.”

He spoke out after Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, urged police to “use the full force of the law” following criticism of the Met’s “soft” approach that had allowed the protests to continue for several days.

The protesters took over Parliament Square, Waterloo Bridge and Oxford Circus last Monday, vowing to continue causing disruption until the Government takes drastic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Dame Emma courted controversy by jetting 5,400 miles (8,700km) from Los Angeles to take part in the action but defended herself by insisting that she “plants a lot of trees”.

She told the BBC she was “too old” to fly economy but added: “One of the things that has happened consistently over the decades I’ve been protesting about this – and flying economy by the way, whenever I did fly – is that it’s always turned back on the individual.

“The fact of the matter is everyone has been asking for clean energy for decades and it has been ignored for decades. So, where is the hypocrisy? If I could fly cleanly, I would.”

She had earlier climbed aboard the pink boat to declare that the planet was “in serious trouble”.

“We have much, much less time than we thought,” she said. “I have seen the evidence for myself and I really care about my children and grandchildren enough to want to be here today to stand with the next generation. We’re in a race between consciousness and catastrophe.”

She said climate change was “the most urgent problem in the history of the human race”, and branded the failure to make supermarket plastic bags illegal “psychotic”.

When Dame Emma, who had previously said she wanted to be arrested, left the site, the police swiftly moved in, removing those chained or glued to the boat. They formed two rings, gradually pushing activists out of the area before officers dismantled the vessel, which was bolted to the ground.

By early evening, they had made 106 arrests, taking the total detained all week to 682.

Earlier, plans to shut down Heathrow airport were abandoned after the group’s tactics were leaked.

Instead, about 15 under-17s from the protest group stood outside the transport hub holding a large banner saying: “Are we the last generation?”