Birmingham Attacks and Extinction Rebellion Protests

Rob Butler Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kit Malthouse]

Obviously, a number of fines were handed out over the weekend, and my hon. Friend has given exactly the strong message he is looking for

[Rob Butler (Aylesbury) (Con)]

As a former journalist, I was appalled at the chilling attempts to quash the free press by extremists at the weekend. Day in, day out, reporters risk their lives around the world in their determination to seek and expose the truth, which is printed on newspapers at the very print works that XR blockaded. Does my hon. Friend agree that no protest group has the right to override those committed journalists and try to dictate its version of the truth?

[Kit Malthouse]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. If anything, the protest highlighted—certainly to me and to many millions of our fellow citizens—the miracle that is a newspaper. Information is brought to us from across the globe and printed, dropping through the letterbox day after day without let or hindrance. If anything, the protest highlighted the value of that resource.