MP claims Extinction Rebellion want to see 'single child' policy in UK

Extinction Rebellion want to see the British government implement a one child policy in a bid to slow climate change, a Conservative MP has claimed.

Gillian Keegan, MP for Chichester, said she addressed the environmental activists when the visited parliament last week as they carried out a series of protests bringing parts of central London to a standstill.

She said the group put forward ‘six suggestions’ which she will pass to environment secretary Michael Gove, though she dismissed the single child policy and a bid to limit citizens to a single long-haul and short-haul flight per year as totalitarian.

Speaking to Radio 4’s Westminster Hour she said: “They wanted to declare a climate change emergency and the date of 2025, we started talking about policies.

“To me the words are much less important than the actions - 2025 is six years away.

“They were talking about asking the government to implement a one-child policy for the UK, single we could only take one short haul and one long haul flight a year.

“I said ‘Really? That’s not what government’s do, that’s what dictators do that’s not going to cut it’.

“In the end we got down to six things that we agreed - which I’ll take to the minister.”

The claim came as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party forced a Commons vote on whether to declare environmental and climate emergency following mass protests over political inaction in addressing the crisis.

Mr Corbyn said he hoped other countries would follow if the UK Parliament became the first in the world to declare a climate emergency.

He said: "For young people, the climate emergency is the cause of their generation. And we in older generations must face up to this seriously.

"We have to have a much more focused and serious approach towards climate change and the damage we're doing to our planet.

"We want a world for those in countries worst affected by and least to blame for climate change and our young people.

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"On Wednesday, the UK Parliament will have the chance to be the first in the world to declare an environment and climate emergency, which we hope will trigger a wave of action from parliaments and governments around the world."

Labour's policy is for the UK to achieve net zero emissions before 2050, an ambition which falls far short of Extinction Rebellion's call for a 2025 deadline.

The Opposition pointed to official figures showing a 2% reduction in emissions last year, suggesting that a level compatible with net zero emissions would not be reached until 2100.

An Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman said the group has not called for the introduction of a single child policy.

She added: “Extinction Rebellion’s key demands are Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

“Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

“Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.”