A Sussex man has been arrested in the grounds of the Prime Minister’s home in the Yorkshire village of Kirby Sigston this afternoon (Tuesday 25 June).
The unnamed 20-year-old was held along with three others after a protest at Rishi Sunak’s residence in his Richmond constituency.
North Yorkshire Police said: “We have arrested four people in the grounds of the Prime Minister’s constituency home this afternoon.
“Our officers were with the four men within one minute of them entering the grounds.
“They were detained at around 12.40pm before being escorted off the property and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
“The men, aged 52, from London, 43, from Bolton, 21, from Manchester, and 20, from Chichester, remain in police custody for questioning and inquiries are ongoing.”
News reports said that the protesters in the grounds of the 200-year-old grade II listed Georgian mansion were activists from an organisations called Youth Demand.
A video appeared to show one of the campaigners, Manchester University student Oliver Clegg, 21, squat and stage a “dirty protest” in a lake in the grounds. He was wearing a top with “eat shit Rishi” printed on the back.
Last year, four Greenpeace supporters scaled Mr Sunak’s property and draped it with banners while the PM was away on holiday.
Last week, a woman from Brighton was among two Just Stop Oil protesters who sprayed orange paint on private jet aircraft at Stansted airport, in Essex.
Cole Macdonald, 22, of Baker Street, Brighton, and Jennifer Kowalski, 28, of Dumbarton, pleaded not guilty at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court today (Saturday 22 June) to causing criminal damage and interfering with national infrastructure.
The pair are accused of using angle grinders to break through an airport fence at around 5am on Thursday.
They entered a taxiway with Just Stop Oil-branded fire extinguishers filled with orange spray paint, the court was told, before spraying two aircraft.
Kowalski and Macdonald are also both charged with aggravated trespass, though they were not asked to enter pleas for that.
They were remanded in custody until a plea hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court.
