AN EXTINCTION Rebellion activist, who was recently sentenced to community service over climbing Elizabeth Tower in London, has spoken out as to why he believed his stunt was necessary.

Benjamin Atkinson, 44, from Ambleside, received a sentenced of 250 hours of unpaid work, plus a £865 fine, for climbing Big Ben’s tower in London.

On 18 October 2019, Atkinson took part in a protest outside the Palace of Westminster as part of the October Uprising.

Ben said: “I did it out of a sense of moral duty and outrage at the decision the Met took to ban all XR protests at the time, this was during the second week of the October uprising around London.

“This later transpired to being an illegal ban as the high court ruled the week after.

“There was a sense of anger at the misrepresentation of peaceful protests.

“I picked Elizabeth’s tower because, and the phrase I used in court, it was the fallacy of empire.

“In a way I was dressed up as Boris Johnson, in a green jump suit, first reason I did this was not to be shot,

“They would have seen me as an absurd figure.

“The other reason was to act as the fool, and the fool was the Government.

“It’s the job of the court jester to prick the ego of power, and that’s what I wanted to do.

“Climate change is such a big issue we can’t deal with it individual. It requires a global effect

"If one person isn’t willing than other people aren’t, why should I do it?

"It’s very hard to engage people’s mass consensus.

"It’s sad that sustainable energy has £250 billion a year spent on it, but when you compare it to £1 trillion developing new fossil fuels, it’s insane.

"We can’t cope that.”

The October 2019 XR protests brought the capitol city to a standstill over in order to voice concerns over climate change and force the Government to act.

Ben added: "I’m a former tree surgeon, I’ve done a lot of rock climber.

“I know how to act at a big height, its’ second nature so it was in my skill set. I did it safely, and when the height response team turned out I made them know I was a sane rational person, and I told them why I was doing it before it happened so we had a good time.

"All in all, we had fun.

"I would like to thank the police for the professionalism they showed and put that in their witness statement.

"It was one of the three things do not give me a custodial sentence in the end."