'If I could fly cleanly I would. I've planted a lot of trees': Emma Thompson

Dame Emma Thompson today defended herself for flying 5,400 miles from Los Angeles to London to take part in the Extinction Rebellion protests that have crippled the capital, saying: ‘If I could fly cleanly, I would.’

Dozens of police officers marched into Oxford Circus today while the actress stood on top of a pink boat reading a ‘love poem to the earth’ on the fifth day of the protests that have closed key routes through the capital.

Huge crowds gathered as Hollywood star Thompson, who jetted into London Heathrow from California on Wednesday, laughed with demonstrators as youth members of the group held a so-called ‘Day of Love’.

Dame Emma compared the movement to the Suffragettes, saying they also ‘disrupted an awful lot of people’s lives in order to get something that we now take for granted ‘ in their fight for the right to vote.ADVERTISING

The Sense and Sensibility star, a seasoned climate change campaigner, told the BBC: ‘Unfortunately, sometimes, I have to fly. But I don’t fly nearly as much as I did because of my carbon footprint. And I plant a lot of trees.

‘One of the things that has happened consistently over the decades I’ve been protesting about this – and flying economy whenever I did fly – is that it’s always turned back on the individual – ‘you’re the one who flies’.

‘Everyone has been asking for clean energy for decades. This question and this demand has been made for decades, and it has been ignored for decades. So, where is the hypocrisy (from me)? If I could fly cleanly, I would.’ Video playing bottom right…Click here to expand to full page

Earlier, she told how she ‘can’t even describe the level of hypocrisy from our government’, and ascended the ladder to the deck of the boat to cheers from the crowd, before dozens of police officers surrounded them.

The boat was encircled by a ring of steel formed by at least 30 officers, which came hours after police told of the ‘strain’ the protests were putting on them with officers working 12-hour shifts and having rest days cancelled.

Once Dame Emma had got back on the ground and left, specialist officers began cutting protesters from the frame of the boat – which has become a focal point for the demonstrations – and leading them away.

Dame Emma, whose appearance from 11am had been publicised by Extinction Rebellion, drew a huge crowd at the boat – although Scotland Yard denied that they had deliberately chosen this moment to move in.

Speaking to reporters, Dame Emma added: ‘I’m sure everyone feels the same that to inconvenience people and to disrupt their lives is not desirable.